19 November 2012, 11:00
Georgian sailors ask the authorities to help them return home from Panama
Twelve Georgian sailors who are on board “Maria del Carmen” Nigerian ship in Panama appealed to the President and Government of Georgia asking to help them return home.
On November, 17, relatives of mate Giorgy Dzhanelidze told the journalists that there were four Georgians on board the ship. However, it emerged later that there were more Georgian sailors, i.e. 12, all of them residents of Batumi.
According to the Georgian sailors, the Nigerian ship-owner refused to pay salary to the sailors leaving them without financing.
Now the ship with the crew is in the roads near the shore of Panama. According to the sailors, they have enough food only for three days. Dzhanelidze said that because of the absence of fuel power was off on board already for the second day, the fridge and generators were also off and they might soon lose touch with the external world by the phone, radio “Svoboda” reports.
On November, 18, it became known that the ship-owner company promised to settle all their problems within ten days, Director of “Frigate” limited company Irakly Dumbadze reported. It was just this company who connected the Georgian sailors with the ship-owner, “Georgia Online” reports.
“We contacted the manager of the vessel and he told us that they were doing their best to settle the problem. Nobody will go home without getting salary”, Irakly Dumbadze said.
According to him, one these days the crew will get fuel and food and wage arrears will be paid off in full.
