the goan I network
PANAJI/VASCO
The Union Ministry of Home affairs issued an order on Tuesday evening finally clearing the issue of repatriating Indian seafarers stranded onboard ships at ports across the nation amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
An advisory issued by the Union Home Secretary detailed procedures to be strictly followed by ship masters, port authorities and state governments for seafarers to signing-on and sign-off at all Indian ports.
One specific procedure makes it mandatory for testing seafarers, who are to be kept in quarantine at ports until their test results come. If tested positive, the seaman will be put through the drill laid down by the health ministry, it said.
The process to sign off 93 seafarers stranded on Karnika ship, 66 on Marella Discovery and 23 on Angriya at Mumbai port is expected to start tomorrow.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant disclosed that the Goan seafarers will be brought back to Goa either by road or sea. “They will be first tested for Covid-19 immediately after they disembark at Mumbai port. On their arrival in Goa, they will undergo another test after which they will be sent to 14-day quarantine” he added.
Meanwhile, 66 Goan seafarers on board the cruise ship ‘Marella Discovery’ anchored off Mumbai port on Tuesday made a frantic appeal to the government to evacuate them and bring them back to Goa, after the ship’s management decided to leave for Europe with or without the Goan seafarers on Wednesday evening.
The seafarers, which include some from Vasco, made a video and shared it with the media in Vaso as a last resort after claiming that efforts to convey messages to the government through politicians and the shipping association had failed.
According to sources, the management of the Cruise ship has decide to leave for Europe after claiming to have waited for the Indian government’s response for over 40 days when the ship was anchored off the Mumbai port.
In the video message, one seafarer said: "We are making this video because for the last 40 days, no one is taking any action to rescue us and bring us back, but are only giving us fake assurance and extended timelines.”
“We are healthy now and have already undergone self-quarantine and we have been continuously trying to get in touch with authorities, but nothing is being done.”
“We are all set to go to Europe on Wednesday and if the government cannot rescue us now when we are healthy, they can later get our coffins from Europe later.”
“If the Government can do something, they have to do it in these two days. We have tried interacting with all
legislators who have now stopped answering our calls. The shipping association has also done nothing for us.
“Hence as a last resort, we are contacting the media with this video as a last resort," said the seafarers in their video message.
The crew members later released another video of the ship’s Captain Chris Dodds addressing the crew members that the decision to leave for Europe by Wednesday had been confirmed by the management.
"Despite doing everything we could, unfortunately the Indian Government has not kept to their promises and kept extending deadlines.”
“I spoke to the head office and we have to put an end to this now because it is not good for anybody of us to be here without any direction and though it's not a decision which was easy to make, we may have to go to Europe from here now.”
“In fact, when the company asked me if I wanted to be boarded off, I said no because I had decided to disembark only after all the crew are cleared," said Captain Dodds in his address to the crew members.
