Australia’s ports minister has slammed the owner of a vessel that remains at anchor with its crew underfed off the Gladstone port.
Mark Bailey told local media that shipowner Five Stars Fujian Shipping had shown “heartless and inhumane disregard”.
He said: “No seafarer should be abandoned by the employer on the other side of the globe, let alone be left without basic provisions.
“It’s shameful and disrespectful behaviour.”
Twenty Chinese seamen working on the 181,383-dwt Five Stars Fujian (built 2009) received emergency supplies via a helicopter yesterday. But the supplies are expected to last for only a couple of days.
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Australia assistant coordinator Matt Purcell said: “For the owners to abandon their crew, virtually leaving them for dead, is beyond shocking.
“Even when they were being paid, the crew was barely receiving $2 an hour, which is well below international standards.”
ITF said the seafarers had not been paid for the last two months or more.
