Seafarers abandoned in Kenya face further delays on legal redress and repatriation

Ten seafarers from the RA-Horakhty fishing vessel, abandoned in Mombasa, Kenya for the past nine months, face a bleak Christmas as efforts to seek legal redress and repatriation have been delayed, says global maritime charity Stella Maris.

A court hearing originally scheduled for 23 October has been postponed three times. The case is now due to be heard on 22 December making it unlikely that the men will be reunited with their families any time soon.

The charity said the crew's disappointment is further compounded by financial worries, as they have not been able to support their struggling families since March 2021 when their employer stopped paying their wages.

The vessel's master Captain Seo Hyundo, has expressed his frustration over the decision to further postpone the ruling, saying that this is pushing the psychological capacity of the crew to the limits.

Stella Maris is working alongside the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and other local partners to support the seafarers.

The Kenyan-flagged fishing vessel was abandoned in March 2020 by its owner with more than 16 crew members onboard, from Kenya, Tanzania, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Stella Maris said the Kenyan and Tanzanian crew members had been repatriated and their salaries paid; and on 15 December the six Indonesian seafarers finally flew home with the help of the Indonesian Embassy.

In September, Stella Maris stepped in to provide emergency support to the crew after the ship's owner stopped providing food and fresh water. The charity was informed of the crew's dire situation by the ITF.

'We are concerned with how long the court case will take, and the financial struggle and psychological strain on the crew and their families,' said Margaret Masibo, director of Stella Maris Mombasa Kenya.

'It is very distressing that the remaining ten seafarers will spend Christmas away from their families. The delicate humanitarian situation that the seafarers are in should rightfully prompt the fast tracking of the case to a just and quick conclusion,' she said, adding that Stella Maris will keep looking out for the crew's wellbeing and monitoring the situation until the case concludes and their ordeal ends.'

Stella Maris said the case illustrates a wider problem of seafarer and fisher abandonment, as highlighted by the number of reported cases on the International Labour Organization Abandonment of Seafarers database.