Duped by agents, 12 Indian sailors rot on ship in Turkey

Two Tamils also onboard; official says coordinating with MEA on rescue

- C SHIVAKUMAR

CHEATED and abandoned on an arrested ship, MV Fatma Eylul, at the Ambarli Port in Istanbul, Turkey, 12 Indian sailors, including two from Tamil Nadu, have been stranded without a penny for the last threeand-a-half months. The sailors, who were duped by an Indian Recruitment and Placement Services License (RPSL) agent, are clinging onto hopes, waiting to be reunited with their families and receive their pending wages.

"Free us or kill us. We feel helpless, with our families in desperate financial crisis. We have been asked not to leave the ship," said Cleetus Jesudasson, the ship's captain.

The 49-year-old Nagercoil native said he is going ‘insane' after being locked up in a ship and told not to set foot on the shore by the port authorities.

In a desperate SOS appeal to the Director General of Shipping, the union government and the state government, the crew have urged to be reunited with their families.