Sunday 06 / July / 2025
Muscat: Owners of a cargo ship that sank off the coast of Oman say rescued staff will receive all salaries due and the company will repatriate them.
Crew members, who were rescued from the sinking ship, claim that they haven’t received their salaries for months.
Read here: Brave rescue saves 20 lives after ship sinks off Oman coast
Twenty crew members of the Tanzanian registered cargo ship were rescued on Sunday after the ship sank in Omani territorial waters just before the port of Al-Labki in Wilayat Jazir. A spokesman told the Times of Oman: “The company will clear their dues after repatriation through their agents or directly to them.”
“Of course they will be paid all their dues. We will settle everyone’s dues after their repatriation, and if we get any insurance claim, we will also compensate them, but they will not get any money in Oman.” When asked who will bear their repatriation costs, the company representative said: “We will bear all their repatriation cost.”
The ship was carrying building material and was heading to Eritrea. “We lost all our belongings at sea. Now our company is telling us that we won’t get paid unless we reach our home countries,” said Jarnail Singh, who claims that he hasn’t been paid.
Singh, an Indian national, worked as second officer on the ship. Another crew member, Pakistani national, Wajeeh Ullah, claimed that he hasn’t been paid for the last 45 days. “We have no shoes, no clothes and no money as we had to flee from the ship when the water levels started increasing,” said Ullah, the Chief Officer of the ship.
There were around 14 Pakistanis, four Indians and two Somali nationals on board the Tanzanian registered cargo ship.
The workers have contacted their embassies for help. “We are trying to sort out the issue,” said an official from the Indian Embassy in Muscat.
Speaking to the Times of Oman, Pakistan's Ambassador to Oman, Ali Javed said: “We are looking into this incident. As you know, the ship was going from UAE therefore the country of origin would be different than ours.
“However, since the accident has taken place nearby, our first concern is the well-being of our people, and of course we are going to offer every possible assistance to them in ensuring that they get all their rights.”
“After leaving Hamriya Port, we went to Fujairah Port as the ship needed some repair work. From Fujairah, the ship came to Muscat, where we were supposed to get paid. But then, we were told that we will only get paid once the ship reaches Eritrea in Africa,” one crew member said.
But when the ship reached Al-Labki, the ship was caught in the bad weather and started taking on water. “We thought it was a small leak, which we could manage but later water started coming in fast.”
“We informed the company and a marine engineer based in Salalah, Mohammed Sayeed Aijaz, who came with a pump and asked us to pump out water. When the water level started increasing, Aijaz again came with two fishing boats and rescued us,” the crew member added.
“We managed to run from the ship with only our passports,” one of them said.
