Marooned in Malta, 21 Filipino seamen seek help

Twenty-one Filipino seafarers aboard a cargo ship have been adrift off the port of Malta for months and are seeking compensation from Taiwanese employers alleged to have virtually abandoned them at sea with no fuel and limited food and water.

The Inquirer Global Nation reported that the Philippines's department of foreign affairs said two members of the Philippine embassy in Rome, which also services Malta, checked on the seafarers aboard the stranded M/V A Lady Bug, a Taiwanese-owned carrier of cars and trucks, and brought them some supplies. The seafarers told the embassy they were seeking repatriation assistance, but only after they receive pending wages from their employer.

The embassy reported having provided supplies such as noodles, drinking water and specific medicines to the crew on board the M/V A Lady Bug.

The embassy were told by the seafarers that they wished to be repatriated as soon as possible, but only after their pending claim for back salaries and other benefits from the management of the ship are fully settled.

The ship is a Panamanian-registered vehicle carrier that was reported to be adrift "for months" some 15 nautical miles off Maltese port limits. The Maltese authorities just recently granted the ship entry into its waters, providing it fuel to enter its territory.

The Philippines's DFA said it was unclear why the troubled ship was not readily granted access to the Maltese port, and that it had no information on the ship's port of origin and supposed destination and the name of the company that deployed the Filipinos.

The Filipino crewmen and their Pakistani captain have all decided to take legal action against their Taiwanese employers. The International Transport Worker's Federation in Malta has also vowed to provide assistance to the Filipinos in pushing their case forward.