A product tanker has been forced aground by a storm after being anchored off the United Arab Emirates for more than three years.
The 7,000-dwt Iba (built 2008), operated by Alco Shipping Services, beached at Umm Al Quwain on the morning of 24 January 2021 after breaking its anchor, the Khaleej Times said.
Major-General Sheikh Rashid bin Ahmed Al Mualla, commander-in-chief of the Umm Al Quwain police, told the newspaper that "the legal representative of the company confirmed that they are ready to tow the ship as early as possible, and when the weather conditions get better".
The UK's Times newspaper reported that the vessel had not docked for 43 months and five crew members — three from India and one each from Myanmar and Pakistan — had remained on board throughout.
Four-year shift
The crew members said they are owed $170,000. One seafarer said he had not been on land for four years and the five claim to have not been paid for 32 months.
The ship's workers also said they were unable to stop the vessel breaking anchor in heavy seas and then washing up 100 metres off the main beach.
Alco Shipping Services has been contacted for comment.
Talks are reportedly underway to sell the Iba and the vessel could be towed off the beach on 29 January.
The Dubai branch of the Mission to Seafarers has been delivering supplies to the crew.
In 2018, India blacklisted Alco Shipping Services in another crew-abandonment case.
"It has been reported to this directorate that Indian seafarers are stranded at Dubai for last 22 months due to abandonment by the owners/recruiting agencies," the directorate general of shipping told the protector general of emigrants in the ministry of external affairs.
"The seafarers are distressed, not paid wages for months, not repatriated ... after completion of contract."
The year before, UK charity Human Rights at Sea said a crew on board Alco Shipping Services' 9,939-dwt tanker Ocean Pride (built 1988) had not been paid for two years.
The ship was at anchorage off the UAE at that time.
Alco Shipping Services is listed by Clarksons as controlling four other vessels, including another product tanker.
