VietNamNet Bridge - A crew of 27 sailors aboard a Vietnamese cargo ship, Phuc Hai 5, has appealed for food after living in hunger for seven months drifting back and forth in India and Indonesia.

The crew has many times experienced lack of food and fresh water since July 30, 2010, crew member Tran Trung Kien said in a letter to Thanh Nien.

They are currently docked at the Indonesian port of Surabaya.

He also said they had not been paid and the ship often lacked diesel.

The ship is owned by the Financial Leasing Company II (ALC II) under the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

ALC II has leased the ship to Phuc Hai Shipping Co., Ltd., based in the northern city of Hai Phong, since December 31, 2008 for cargo transport.

Hoang Ngoc Tien, general director of ALC II, admitted that “it is true that the crew…has been left in hunger”.

He added that the company has suffered losses since May 2010.

Drinking rainwater

From 5-20 October, 2010, during a trip to the Colombo Port of Sri Lanka, the crew had to drink rainwater or water discharged from the air conditioners on the ship.

Without food, they had to catch fish to eat.

According to the letter, the crew later went without food for one whole week last November while their ship was in Tuticorin, India.

At that time, the ship’s captain, Sin Yuri, a Russian citizen, sent an appeal to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) for help.

After ITF voiced its concerns about the plight of the crew, Phuc Hai promised it would provide essential items to the crew when the ship arrived at the Surabaya port.

But on January 18, 2011, when the ship finished unloading at the port, Phuc Hai provided nothing to the ship. The crew had to beg food and drinking water from other ships to survive.

US$287,000 in need

Phuc Hai later asked ALC II to provide it with more than VND6 billion ($287,300) to pay for its debt and necessary expenses, including diesel, so that the ship could return to Vietnam.

ACL II said it would send its staff to Indonesia to learn about the situation and coordinate with relevant Vietnamese agencies, firstly with the Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia, for assistance.

A staff member of Phuc Hai told Thanh Nien that Nguyen Xuan Chien, the company’s director, flew to Indonesia on February 20 to handle the problem.

Phuc Hai, established in 1997, is now operating four ships for cargo transportation.

Source: Thanh Nien/Tuoi Tre