PTOLEMEOS
Seafarers abandoned on the PTOLEMEOS (IMO 9104081, flag Liberia) in Port of Djibouti, Djibouti, 15 September 2019. ILO case 413, status: Resolved.
- Status
- Resolved
- Abandonment ID
- 413
- IMO Number
- 9104081
- Flag
- Liberia
- Port of Abandonment
- Port of Djibouti, Djibouti
- Abandonment Date
- 15 September 2019
- Notification Date
- 19 November 2019
- Reporting Org.
- Greece - Ministry of Maritme Affairs and Insular Policy
Circumstances
The vessel was arrested by government authorities for debts.
Updates
23 November 2020: Other
From West P&I club
Mr. ***, Chief Officer, and only remaining member of the abandoned crew to be detained on board the ship eventually arrived home in Romania yesterday 22/11/20. His repatriation therefore ends all and any MLC liability on the West P&I club.
Despite the best and significant efforts of West, the Liberia flag, officers from ILO and IMO, ICS and ITF, these cases were resolved only by virtue of the sale of both ships to a new owner. The authorities in Djibouti remained fixed in their position throughout the period of these abandonments and refused to facilitate the repatriation of abandoned seafarers until or unless they were replaced by other seafarers who in turn risked abandonment. The way in which these cases have been handled remains a cause of deep concern for the International Group and we ask that the social partners, ICS and ITF, consider presenting a joint statement or possibly draft a Resolution for consideration at the forthcoming STC on the MLC in April 2021, which could and should describe the need for MLC States Parties to adhere to their treaty obligations, to respect abandoned seafarers and not treat them as hostages to be exchanged for others.
5 November 2020: International Transport Workers' Federation
Jointly with ICS.
We respectfully remind State parties to the MLC that they are obliged to facilitate the repatriation of abandoned crew and intevene to prevent current or porspective crew members on board ships from serving in conditions entirely inconsistent with the MLC. In this instant, to facilitate or fail to prevent the transfer of new crew on board Ptolemeos will not protect them from unsafe working conditions and perilous living conditions. We therefore request your urgent intervention to protect the proposed Bangladishi crew from a situation from which they will be unable to escape unless or until another fully paid crew is able to replace them.
We urge all governments to continue to apply maximum pressure on the Government of Djibouti in order to secure the repatriation of the current crews on board Ptolemeos and Arybbas.
28 September 2020: Other
From West of England Insurance Service S.A.
They urge the Djibouti Harbour Master to allow disembarkation and repatriation of the seafarer without any other delay whatsoever as there is a very serious concern regarding seafarer’s state of health both physically and mentally after being on board the Ptolemeos for over 15 months.
30 July 2020: Other
From International Group P&I Clubs.
There are presently 9 original Filipino crewmembers onboard the Arybbas and 10 on the Ptolemeos, 1 original crewmember Mr Vedeanu and 9 Sri Lankan crew who replaced 9 Filipino crew on 23/11/19. We believe that Global Gateway, are paying the remaining crew on board.
The West club’s overall costs on these abandonmenst to date are: Arybbas US$ 957,662.00; and Ptolemeos US$ 1,725.929.75. This includes payment of 4 months wages for the 24 original crewmembers, and ongoing costs for food, bunkers medical costs etc.
The Club has made two applications to arrest the vessels and logged one appeal. These have been disallowed by the Djibouti Courts. It is worth noting that seven (7) other parties with legitimate claims have had their applications to arrest the ship refused.
In parallel to private procedures before the Djibouti courts, it seems that the Port Authorities are trying to arrange the vessels’ auction pursuant to a unilateral and administrative decision, which suggests they may want to sell the vessels and keep all of the proceeds without the arresting parties having any claim to any of the proceeds, including the seafarers who are still owed salary in excess of the 4 months paid by West.
The West has sought co-operation with the ITF at regular intervals during the abandonment and they are certainly involved in correspondence concerning Mr Vedeanu between the Romanian Embassy in Cairo and the Romanian authorities.
The West received a request from Global in June 2020 asking for their assistance with a repatriation flight for the replacement of a Sri Lankan crew member OS Linka Gamage. The Club refused on the grounds that it does not have any liability in respect of the replacement crew.
It is important to note that the ship came off risk when the owners went into financial default and cover duly terminated. Without the West’s interventions the crew would be in a perilous situation with no obvious means of support, food, water etc.
However, the West has agreed to arrange medication to be provided for the 3rd engineer on the Ptolemeos and this has been debited to and paid by Thalina Shipping who are the manning agents for the Sri Lankan crew instructed by Global. We were advised by the Master that the 3rd engineer had the cost of the medication debited from his wages. That does not seem right to us.
It is abundantly clear that these abandonment cases could and should have been resolved shortly after they occurred. The West stood by immediately and sought to repatriate the crew expeditiously, as required under the MLC. The Djibouti authorities’ actions to date have been entirely inconsistent with the obligations of a state party to the MLC. The authorities have consistently frustrated the provision of medical care, obstructed the repatriation process, made unreasonable demands that amount to a hostage exchange whereby abandoned seafarers are traded in exchange for replacement crew. The arrest proceedings leave much to be desired and for reasons best known to the courts, legitimate creditors have been denied access to the arrest proceedings.
28 July 2020: Liberia
We also would like to take this opportunity, to request for assistance, and humanitarian consideration to be provided an access for immediate repatriation of several seafarers onboard the vessel PTOLEMEOS, and her sister vessel ARYBBAS, both currently at Djibouti anchorage. These named vessels and the seafarers were both abandoned by the shipowner late last year, and a related report of abandonment was submitted to the IMO/ILO abandonment data base. The P and I club West of England P and I, as the MLC financial security provider took over to support the needs of the seafarers onboard, as provided by MLC A/2.5.2 from October of last year to date. However, to date majority of the seafarers onboard are due to go home, and there are also no prospect of these seafarers to be allowed access for repatriation. The last information that this Administration has received, that the arresting parties of the vessel are refusing to auction the vessel, and this also affected the rights and welfare of the seafarers to be repatriated.
The latest information that we have received from the P and I club, that since their obligations to pay the wages up to maximum of 4 months as allowed by the Convention has already been done, the only support that they continue to provide now are just for the accommodation, food, and catering of the seafarers.