New Delhi: After a nine-month detention in Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria that involved frequent bouts of malaria, delays in a trial, and, finally, a $15 million settlement, 16 Indian sailors accused of oil theft by Nigerian authorities will arrive home this week.
The sailors, who were part of the crew aboard vessel MT Heroic Idun, are scheduled to reach Cape Town in South Africa Wednesday morning after which they will board flights to their respective home towns in India. They are expected to reach India by 10 June.
Since August 2022, the ship’s crew have been in detention — first in Equatorial Guinea and now in Nigeria — for alleged oil theft, conspiracy, and evasion of lawful interception. The charges would have invited lifetime prison sentences.
In all, there were 26 sailors onboard the Norwegian oil tanker. Others were from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Poland.
On 28 May, the Nigerian Navy released the ship’s crew after a $15 million settlement was paid by OSM Maritime Group, the Norwegian shipping company that owns the vessel, to the Nigerian authorities.
Sources in the All India Seafarers Union told ThePrint that negotiations had been going on for several months between Nigeria and the ship owners. However, they said that “$15 million was “not a steep amount” considering serious charges levelled against the crew.
In September, the ship’s owners paid a fine of over and above $1.9 million to Equatorial Guinea authorities for sailing through the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Agreeing with the line taken by the seafarers’ union, another source, who did not wish to be named, explained why the settlement was not too steep an amount when calculated against the rent of the ship over a lengthy trial.
“If the trial had proceeded as usual, it would have taken at least two years. The rent of the ship is roughly $100,000 per day which means about $3 million a month,” explained the source.
The crew were scheduled to have hearings in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, but these were postponed multiple times, the above source added.
ThePrint reached Geir Sekkesaeter, CEO of OSM Maritime Group, through WhatsApp calls regarding the issue. However, he declined to comment.
India’s Director General of Shipping Rajiv Jalota told ThePrint: “This is a major relief for the sailors, their family members and the seafarer community. We hope this harrowing experience does not affect the careers of these sailors going forward.”
Contracted malaria on ‘multiple occasions’
In August 2022, when a surveillance vessel claiming to be from the Nigerian Navy approached the Norwegian oil tanker MT Heroic Idun, the latter fled the scene suspecting it to be a pirate vessel and sailed to Equatorial Guinea. However, the Nigerian authorities alerted their counterparts in Equatorial Guinea, following which the crew was arrested.
Three months later, the ship was shifted from Equatorial Guinea to Nigeria where the crew was detained for six months.
Sources claimed that during the detention in Equatorial Guinea, members of the crew contracted malaria on “multiple occasions”, leading to poor physical and mental health for the rest of the detention.
Metilda Jose, the wife of one of the sailors, who lives in Kerala, told ThePrint: “It has been a long and frustrating nine months without my husband. We thank the Indian government for their support to the crew during this time.”
Last December, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had raised the issue of Indian sailors stuck in Nigeria in the Lok Sabha and said that the government was “providing them legal support and consular support”.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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