A total of 144 Indian crew on board U.S. cruise liner Marella Discovery, anchored off Mumbai, will be the first lot of seafarers to return to land on Wednesday.
“These 144 Indians will disembark at the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and will be subjected to COVID-19 test and remain in quarantine inside the port premises till their reports are received,” MbPT chairman Sanjay Bhatia said. The Goa government said that it would organise transport to fetch the 90 Goan seafarers back to the State once they were approved for travel.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday night issued the order allowing the sign on and sign off of Indian ship crew. This order will benefit close to 25,000 Indian seafarers.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian crew on Marella Discovery appealed to the government of India to announce its policy for seafarers immediately, as their ship would set sail for Europe within the next 24 hours.
Chris Dodds, the ship’s captain, in an earlier address to the 750 crew, a video of which was reviewed by this reporter, said that they had to draw the line somewhere and return.
“The Indian government has been making promises. But there is no direction. Hence, I recommended to the shipping company that we start sailing towards Europe,” Captain Dodds said.
The Captain assured sailors from all over the world that he would disembark only after ensuring that the crew got home, a reason why the ship had been in Indian waters for the last 40 days.
In a separate video message, Goan seafarers onboard the ship had appealed to the Goa government as a final cry for help to take them home.
“We are now desperate as the government has not done anything to get us back for all these days,” Rudraksha Haldankar, a sailor said in a video message.
Frank Viegas of the Goan Seamen’s Association of India in a press conference had warned that there was only one day in hand. “The Goa government needs to take a stand now or else their [seafarers] coffins will fly back from Europe,” he said.
