Chemical tanker Qaaswa (IMO 9438250) has run out of power after being abandoned by her owner and is now a danger to other shipping at night at her anchorage off Tunisia at the mouth of the port of Sfax, the vessel’s captain Yehia Kamel has told Splash. What little food there was left on the ship was beginning to spoil, the captain said.
The 2010-built UAE-flagged 6,190 gt vessel has no medicine on board. The captain said that five of the crew were sick and in urgent need of medical help. There were two Indians, three Bangladeshis and 12 Egyptians on board. A letter has been written to the Indian Embassy in Tunisia, signed by the master, the 2nd officer and the chief cook, listing seven areas of concern.
They are reported not to have been paid for six months. The vessel belongs to Alco Shipping Services of Sharjah, UAE, which has been linked with other cases of crew abandonment in the past year. Qaaswa is listed as entered with Shipowners’ Mutual on behalf of member Alco Shipping Services. On February 2nd this year IMN reported on seven Indian seafarers claiming via social media that they had been abandoned by Alco Shipping Services on waste disposal vessel MU Dharma (IMO 7853420), currently in anchorage at Ajman, Dubai, where it has been for the past 22 months.