26 crew members of sunken Mongolian ship repatriated

All the 26 crew members of the ill-fated Mongolian Ship ''MV.Black Rose'' which sank in the Bay of Bengal, close to Paradip Port on September 9, were repatriated to their countries today.

The crew members who were rescued by the Coast Guard and kept in a hotel here could not be repatriated in the absence of clearance from the Director General of Shipping Ministry.

The port authority finally allowed them to go back to their respective country following a green signal from the Director General of Shipping.

The Immigration authority, local police and Port authority permitted these hapless stranded crew members to go to their native land.

According to Paradip Sub-Divisional Police Officer Santanu Dash out of the 26 crew members 17 were Bangladeshis, three Russians and six Ukrainians.

The crew members had earlier sought the help of the Bangladesh High commission, Ukraine Embassy and Russia Embassy in New Delhi to allow them the necessary permission to leave for their countries.

They had even threatened to go for hunger strike if they were not permitted to go to their country.

The Sea Trans Maritime, the agent of the Sunken ship, made all the arrangements for the stranded crew members to move to Bhubaneswar from where they left for Kolkata for their onward journey to their respective country.

A police team escorted the crew members to Biju Patnaik Airport, Mr Das said.

Sources said the repatriation was delayed as the owner of the sunken ship had furnished forged and fabricated insurance papers and other documents.

The agent of the ship ''Sea Trans Maritime'' finally arranged the Sea Mans book and other relevant documents by communicating with the embassies of Bangladesh, Ukraine and Russia as some of the crew members had lost their documents.

After examining all documents the Director General of Shipping allowed the crew members to leave the country.

Sources said while the Bangladeshi crew members would fly to Bangladesh via Kolkota, the Russian and Ukraine crew members will fly from New Delhi and from there to their respective country.

-- (UNI) -- 10CA57.xml

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