Crew members of infamous ‘Ever Given’ could be stuck on boat for years
Samantha Pope
29/4/2021
The infamous ‘Ever Given’ ship might now be unstuck from the walls of the Suez Canal, but its crew members are not free from the vessel yet — and it’s unclear when that may happen.
The infamous ‘Ever Given’ ship might now be unstuck from the walls of the Suez Canal, but its crew members are not free from the vessel yet — and it’s unclear when that may happen.
Mohammed Aisha rows to shore from the MV Aman cargo ship, where he was stuck on for four years.
The ship stole the world’s attention on March 23 when it ran aground in the Suez Canal, leading to billions of dollars in losses globally before becoming unstuck six days later.
Despite the relief of having an unblocked vital trading route, the ship still hasn’t moved from its holding spot in the middle of the Suez Canal more than a month later. The crew is still onboard the ship amid a monetary dispute, with no agreement yet reached between Egypt and the Ever Given’s owners — and no end yet in sight.
The ship stole the world’s attention on March 23 when it ran aground in the Suez Canal, leading to billions of dollars in losses globally before becoming unstuck six days later.
Despite the relief of having an unblocked vital trading route, the ship still hasn’t moved from its holding spot in the middle of the Suez Canal more than a month later. The crew is still onboard the ship amid a monetary dispute, with no agreement yet reached between Egypt and the Ever Given’s owners — and no end yet in sight.
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It’s a similar story to that of Mohammed Aisha, who was stuck on the MV Aman cargo ship for four years. He was marooned onboard the vessel as a legal dispute between Egyptian authorities and the ship’s owners played out thousands of miles away regarding expired safety equipment and classification certificates.
In that situation, the local court had made Aisha the ship’s legal guard, meaning he was bound to the vessel with no ability to leave. He spent two of the four years on the ship completely alone, eventually becoming malnourished and experiencing symptoms akin to prisoners held in poor conditions, the Guardian reported.
To get food and water and to charge his phone, Aisha had to row to shore — initially 8 kilometres away before a storm blew the Aman off its anchorage and brought it a few hundred metres from the shoreline in 2020.
“It’s not only loneliness, it’s mandatory loneliness combined with desperation,” Aisha told the CBC after finally returning home to Syria on April 23. “It will make you suicidal. So I don’t wish that on anyone.”
Now, the Ever Given is stuck in a dispute as well. The ship is being held by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which demands it must be paid $916 million for salvage costs and damages before the vessel is let go
© Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images The ALMI ODYSSEY clears the Suez Canal on March 30, 2021, near Ismailia, Egypt, after the container ship “Ever Given” was finally freed.
The SCA says the sum will cover revenue lost during the maritime logjam, the cost of the rescue mission and will pay for the damage of the canal’s embankments. But the authority’s chairman, Osama Rabie, told local television the ship’s owners were contesting the huge sum and “they do not want to pay anything.”
This is because the SCA has not provided a justification for this “extraordinarily large claim,” the UK Club, an insurance company that represents the owners of the ship, told the Guardian. “We are also disappointed at comments by the SCA that the ship will be held in Egypt until compensation is paid and that her crew will be unable to leave the vessel during this time.”
The crew, meanwhile, are “relaxed but apprehensive,” according to Abdulgani Y Serang, the head of the National Union of Seafarers of India, which represents the crew. The hope is that they will remain untouched by the dispute swirling around them, he said.
“These are professionals who had nothing to do with this incident and should not be held to ransom,” Serang said. “They should not feel any heat at all from this whole incident.”
On Monday, the head of the SCA said it’s untrue that the 26 crew members of the Ever Given were unable to leave the ship and denied holding them to ransom.
Despite the SCA saying crew members are indeed allowed to come and go off the vessel, though, there are some exceptions. There must be enough sailors left behind to tend to the vessel and the captain cannot leave as he is the ship’s legal guardian, just as Aisha was designated on the Aman.
Cases of seafarers being stuck onboard ships are not uncommon. The International Labour Organization has an ongoing database of abandoned seafarers , with more than 250 active cases around the world where crews are left to fend for themselves. That number is on the rise, BBC reported, with eighty-five new cases reported in 2020 — twice as many as the previous year.
Though crew members are stuck onboard the Ever Given, their story may not play out as Aisha’s did. On Friday, the UK Club filed an appeal in an Egyptian court over the detention of the vessel, with a hearing to be held on May 4.
Meanwhile, Aisha’s case should be a moment for everyone in the shipping industry to reflect upon, Mohammed Arrachedi of the International Transport Workers Federation told the BBC. Though Aisha has returned home, many seafarers remain stuck out on the water.
“The case of Mohammed has to serve to open a serious debate to prevent these abuses to seafarers on ships,” Arrachedi said.
The SCA says the sum will cover revenue lost during the maritime logjam, the cost of the rescue mission and will pay for the damage of the canal’s embankments. But the authority’s chairman, Osama Rabie, told local television the ship’s owners were contesting the huge sum and “they do not want to pay anything.”
This is because the SCA has not provided a justification for this “extraordinarily large claim,” the UK Club, an insurance company that represents the owners of the ship, told the Guardian. “We are also disappointed at comments by the SCA that the ship will be held in Egypt until compensation is paid and that her crew will be unable to leave the vessel during this time.”
The crew, meanwhile, are “relaxed but apprehensive,” according to Abdulgani Y Serang, the head of the National Union of Seafarers of India, which represents the crew. The hope is that they will remain untouched by the dispute swirling around them, he said.
“These are professionals who had nothing to do with this incident and should not be held to ransom,” Serang said. “They should not feel any heat at all from this whole incident.”
On Monday, the head of the SCA said it’s untrue that the 26 crew members of the Ever Given were unable to leave the ship and denied holding them to ransom.
Despite the SCA saying crew members are indeed allowed to come and go off the vessel, though, there are some exceptions. There must be enough sailors left behind to tend to the vessel and the captain cannot leave as he is the ship’s legal guardian, just as Aisha was designated on the Aman.
Cases of seafarers being stuck onboard ships are not uncommon. The International Labour Organization has an ongoing database of abandoned seafarers , with more than 250 active cases around the world where crews are left to fend for themselves. That number is on the rise, BBC reported, with eighty-five new cases reported in 2020 — twice as many as the previous year.
Though crew members are stuck onboard the Ever Given, their story may not play out as Aisha’s did. On Friday, the UK Club filed an appeal in an Egyptian court over the detention of the vessel, with a hearing to be held on May 4.
Meanwhile, Aisha’s case should be a moment for everyone in the shipping industry to reflect upon, Mohammed Arrachedi of the International Transport Workers Federation told the BBC. Though Aisha has returned home, many seafarers remain stuck out on the water.
“The case of Mohammed has to serve to open a serious debate to prevent these abuses to seafarers on ships,” Arrachedi said.
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