A hunger strike held by four crew members on an abandoned Palmali Shipping tanker has ended after a Lebanese court allowed their repatriation to Azerbaijan.
The 7,000-dwt product tanker Captain Nagdaliyev (built 2011) was reported abandoned at Beirut on 13 March 2020. The captain and three other crew members had gone unpaid since and been dependent on the help of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) for fuel, food and water.
The vessel remains in Beirut subject to ongoing legal action in the country's courts.
Groups of crew members were allowed to leave in October and November, with repatriation expenses and partial wages covered by protection and indemnity insurers.
But the captain and three compatriot seafarers remained until 16 February after Lebanese authorities allowed a two-member crew to replace them, ITF Arab World and Iran network coordinator Mohamed Arrachedi told TradeWinds.
The crew’s situation had been made difficult by the unclear financial circumstances of the owner, Turkey’s Palmali Group. The shipowner has faced both political and financial challenges to remain in operation since March last year after the regime of Turkish President Recep Erdogan jailed Palmali founder Mubariz Mansimov.
But objections by officials at the port state of Lebanon, flag state of Malta and unwilling P&I insurers also had to be overcome.
Right to repatriation
Lebanon is a signatory of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), which states that member countries "shall not refuse the right of repatriation to any seafarer because of the financial circumstances of a shipowner or because of the shipowner’s inability or unwillingness to replace the seafarer".
But the ITF coordinator told TradeWinds that the local court handling disputes over the vessel had insisted that the last crew members remain until replaced.
The stand-off led to a hunger strike starting at the beginning of February, and in appeals to port and flag states the ITF called attention to the countries' treaty obligations.
“[Despite] the reiterated calls and requests, the situation of the four crew seafarers on the abandoned Captain Nagdaliyev remains the same and there is a worrying silence from the Lebanese port and maritime authorities,” wrote the ITF coordinator in a message made public by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
"Unfortunately, [not even] the hunger strike protest undertaken by the crew seems enough to make things change and move. The ITF is very worried that this happens in a country that has ratified the MLC, on a ship under the flag of a ratifying country."
The resolution was eventually funded by P&I insurers after local authorities agreed to allow two local seafarers to take over.
Arrachedi told TradeWinds that they have done so under employment contracts with Palmali.
Palmali officials were not immediately available to comment.
Insurer obligations
Three different P&I insurers had views about which of them had the obligation to fund the resolution.
Under the MLC, the P&I insurer of an abandoned vessel must fund the repatriation of crew members and up to four months' back pay. Claims beyond that must go to the owner, which is sometimes evasive or dissolved.
“I always ask the crew if there is a valid P&I certificate on board, so I know the right club to approach,” Arrachedi said.
In this case, a P&I certificate that crew members believed to be valid was disputed. The crew then found another certificate on board. In the end, three different insurers disputed which of them was responsible for parts of the bill.
However, the insurers have not been identified to TradeWinds.
