Mozambique blames Volopas vessel owner for crew’s precarious situation in Maputo

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Mozambique blames Volopas vessel owner for crew’s precarious situation in Maputo

3:51 CAT | 23 Jan 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Vessel Tracker]

Mozambican authorities acknowledge the precarious situation in which the two Russians, two Ukrainians and one Lithuanian who make up the crew of the ship Volopas, have been living in the port of Maputo for several months, but hold the ship owner responsible for the situation.

The information is contained in a request for legal assistance that the Mozambican public institute INTRANSMAR, the regulatory authority for maritime transport, sent on January 9 to the Maputo Maritime Court, in view of the situation of the Cameroonian-flagged scientific research fishing vessel – which has accumulated debts of more than US$400,000 dollars in eight months in the port of the Mozambican capital – and of that of its crew.

In the document, to which Lusa had access on Tuesday, ITRANSMAR “recognizes the precarious conditions in which the crew live on board” and says that it is its hope “that mechanisms be put in place to improve living conditions on board”, namely their disembarkation, but bearing in mind that “legal provisions must be respected”, namely the presence of minimum crew to operate the ship, as is currently the case.

A note from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released on Sunday by the state agency RIA Novosti, states that there are five people on the 53-metre-long fishing vessel ‘Volopas’, now without fuel or electricity, and that two of them, including the captain, are Russian. Reportedly, the crew has food only once a day.

It adds that the Russian crew conveyed their desire to return to their country and that the Russian Embassy in Mozambique “immediately turned to local authorities for assistance”.

In the document sent to the court, ITRANSMAR states that it had received a request for assistance from Russia, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, for the disembarkation of the two Russian crew members, alleging that the ship’s agent refuses to deliver the disembarkation letter to migration services for the purpose of issuing visas for the crew.

It adds that on December 6, a team from ITRANSMAR visited the ship and the crew, together with a representative of the agent, the company Portmar, and found that the five had not been paid for two months, and “that the fuel was about to run out and they only turned on the electricity generator for one hour a day so they could cook”.

“The crew had no water to drink, only water to bathe and the food they bought with their own money, and that was only enough for one meal a day. And, in terms of work, the crew said that the ship had gone fishing for the last time in April, 2021,” the document from the Mozambican authority reads.

On the same occasion, the shipping agent explained that the ship owner he represents belongs to Iceberg Seafood Lda FZC, which formed a company with Miroslav Oufmtsev, called Bantu Fishing, Lda, 60% owned by TEBERG and 40% by the businessman.

The agent added that the ship arrived in the country under a memorandum of understanding between the Oceanographic Institute of Mozambique and Bantu Fishing, to “carry out deep-sea crustacean research”, but “there was disagreement between the partners”, who stopped paying the ship’s expenses, namely the agent, the port, crew and migration, “which caused the ship to be in debt to these entities” to the tune of more than US$430,000.

The agent alone claims to be owed US$30,000, but rejects that this is the reason for not disembarking the crew. “What he knows is that, if the crew, who know the ship, disembarked, it would be abandoned in the port, putting it at risk the safety of the ship and the port. And as an agent, he would not have the autonomy to board national crew members who do not know the ship, in order to guarantee its safety”.

The ITRANSMAR investigation reported to the court also concludes that there was “non-compliance with the memorandum, which expires on February 23rd, on the part of Bantu Fishing, which was supposed to provide three vessels, which did not happen”. It also confirmed that the vessel has a navigability and radio certificate issued by ITRANSMAR, but it “expired in May 2023”, and that the Scientific Research fishing license expired on December 31, 2023.

The document recalls that safety conditions must be guaranteed on any ship under provisions such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which requires it to have a “minimum safety crew considered necessary”, or other international resolutions that define that a ship “is entrusted to a captain and duly qualified officers” and that the crew must “maintain safe watch” in navigation and in port.

READ: Two Russian sailors held in Mozambique as financial hostages, Moscow says

Source: Lusa