Foreign ship and crew members stuck in Odesa port for months: sailor’s testimony
4.02.2026 - 14:57
Due to a dispute between the ship’s owners, the crew of the MT Nathan was left without pay and support in the port of Odesa, under Russian shelling.
The MT Nathan was sold after arriving in Ukraine. Due to a dispute between the new and previous owners, the crew was left in a difficult position, writes the Guardian.
Thus, neither the new nor the previous owner wanted to take responsibility for the crew. Without permission from the port or immigration authorities, crew members were not allowed to leave the ship.
Sailor Guarav Joshi said that in July 2025, the ship was directly at the epicenter of the Russian attack when drones attacked the port of Izmail.
In particular, according to him, the ship’s owners refused to provide them with assistance or pay their wages.
“There were days when we had no fuel for the generators, so we could not cook food and survived on the fruit that the locals gave us,” the sailor said.
After the attack, he contacted the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) to find a way to get the crew home. But the ITF had to make tough decisions during the repatriation negotiations.
“We had not been paid since the day the ship left Turkey and we were at risk of losing our wages,” Joshi added.
ITF inspector Nathan Smith also provided video calls and messages that documented the conditions in which the crew members were living. He said that a situation like a crew abandoned in a war zone could be a decisive factor in negotiations.
“It changes the risk profile for seafarers dramatically, and fears for their personal safety mean that crews are accepting delayed wages, partial payments or dangerous arrangements just to get out of the danger zone,” the inspector explained.
Eventually, the sailor and his colleagues agreed to move to a hotel in the relatively safer port of Odesa, but it was not until November 2025 that all the crew members of the MT Nathan were paid and repatriated to their countries.Read also: Safe Course. How future sailors are taught to protect themselves from human trafficking.
