The 25 crew members of the car carrier Galaxy Leader are marking one year in detention in Yemen with little prospect of imminent release and few signs their fate is high on the international diplomatic agenda.
The Bahamas-flagged 5,100-ceu Galaxy Leader (built 2002) was hijacked on 19 November last year and crew members from Bulgaria, the Philippines, Ukraine, Mexico and Romania have been held since the dramatic helicopter-backed operation.
The two Bulgarian crew members told a Bulgarian politician during her visit in September that they were “desperate and felt forgotten”.
The seizure of the vessel, operated by Japan’s NYK Group, en route from Turkey to India, marked the first major Houthi assault against commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The hijacking came just days after the group threatened to target Israeli vessels in retaliation over the war in Gaza.
It has been followed by a year-long campaign with more than 100 air and sea strikes on vessels leaving two ships sunk, many more damaged and four seafarers killed.
The Galaxy Leader’s owner and manager said they are concerned that the international community is doing nothing to secure the seafarers’ release.
“They have been there for a year, and nobody is doing anything,” one source said.
The Galaxy Leader is owned and managed by Isle of Man-based Ray Car Carriers, which is ultimately owned by Israeli Rami Ungar.
The seafarers have been moved between the vessel and the port city of Hodeidah and have been used as tools for propaganda by the regime.
During the year of captivity, Yemeni influencers have visited the ship.
It was later bathed in green light and used for a celebration to mark the birth of the Prophet Muhammad with the crew in attendance, according to reports.
The captive seafarers can make telephone calls to their families but only under Houthi supervision, according to sources. A number have been struck down by malaria.
Rare visits to the crew have included two from the International Red Cross and a European parliamentarian who met the two Bulgarian nationals at a venue on shore.
Bulgarian MEP Elena Yoncheva visited the ship’s master, Lyubomir Chanev, and a second crew member, Danail Veselinov, in September.
“When, after efforts that lasted for months, I finally reached Sanaa and the Bulgarians in September, I saw that there was a chance for them to leave,” she wrote on social media.
“A huge chance. Unfortunately, there was a last-minute hitch … I continue to actively work towards this cause and progress is being made.”
She said that the efforts of governments were directed at avoiding a major war in the Middle East, not on securing the release of the Bulgarians.
Release calls
The crew includes 17 Filipinos and the country’s department of foreign affairs has repeatedly called for their release.
Eduardo de Vega, a senior official at the department, has said the fate of the seafarers was tied to the end of the war in Gaza.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation has also said it believes the ship will be held until Israel ends its attacks on Gaza.
Yoncheva said: “We cannot wait for the conflict in Gaza and the Middle East to be resolved. The escalation creates greater risks for the Bulgarians in Yemen, so the biggest risk is to expect the situation to resolve itself.”
International Maritime Organization secretary general Arsenio Dominguez has just returned from the Middle East, where he raised the issue of the release of the Galaxy Leader during visits to the internationally-recognised government in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman and Djibouti to discuss the crisis in the Red Sea.
He has also met with a group of family members of the crew, an official for flag state the Bahamas said.
The official did not respond to written questions from TradeWinds about whether he communicated with Houthi officials on the trip to try to secure the release of the Galaxy crew members.
“I do not wish to pre-empt any conversations or negotiations that may be happening, but I will emphasise, as I have many times before, that these seafarers are innocent people who are simply doing their jobs,” he said.
“I reiterated my call for the Galaxy Leader crew to be released and for the unlawful attacks on shipping in the Red Sea to cease.”
The Bahamas told the IMO’s council meeting on Monday that the detentions represented a year of “missed birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, births of children … missed graduations, funerals and other special occasions but most of all the loss of personal freedom”.
The Houthi rebels say that the ship and crew will be released if it is agreed by the “Palestinian resistance”. They said that the seafarers were being treated in a humane manner in line with Islamic teaching.
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