Posted on 05/02/2021 5:07:48 AM PDT by lowbridge
A Syrian sailor spent a frightening four years trapped aboard a cargo ship off the Egyptian coast – two of them alone — before he was finally allowed to go home earlier this month, according to reports.
Mohammad Aisha’s nightmarish ordeal on the 330-foot-long MV Aman container ship began over a legal dispute with Egyptian authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
“I don’t know how this happened to me,” he told the newspaper in a recent interview. “The world has been isolating, but I have been abandoned.”
The vessel was detained at the port of Adabiya, Egypt, near the mouth of the Suez Canal, not long after 29-year-old Aisha had boarded in May 2017.
The ship’s captain was out running errands on shore and Aisha was working on repairs when an Egyptian court courier boarded with a letter declaring the boat would be held until its owner paid a $21,500 invoice for a three-ton anchor bought the year before.
Aisha, as chief mate, the ship’s second-in-command, signed the letter designating himself as the legal guardian of the vessel on the advice of the captain, the report said.
“I had no idea it was the biggest mistake of my life,” Aisha told the newspaper.
In November 2017, Aisha called the ship’s agent, Baha Fadel El Alla, to leave — but a port official told him that, as the ship’s legal guardian, he was required to stay on board, the report said.
Aisha got word in September 2018 that his mother had died – and by August 2019, he had been left entirely alone aboard the vessel as the more than a dozen crew members called it quits one by one and went home.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Confusing...why would he want to go back to SYRIA?
...and he was no-doubt still told he needed to wear a mask...
Secular leadership, backed by the world's largest Christian country, has brought stability to much of the country despite US backing for Islamic militants.
It was not an Egyptian cargo ship. It was a cargo ship being held by Egypt due to unpaid claims against the ship’s owner.
Cargo ship crewmen get abandoned every year. Close to 5,000 crewman have been abandoned on nearly 500 ships since 2004. Often times the ships themselves were being or became abandoned.
The human issue is that he crewmen are caught up by matters they are not responsible for and have little ability to solve. Meanwhile, they have no Visa to enter the country where the ship is being held. Then, if they can (are allowed) to go ashore, the host country wants them repatriated to their home country at the expense of the owners/operators of the ship, who usually won’t pay. On top of that, the crewmen usually have not been paid for some period of time, before & during the period the ship has been held by whatever country holding it for whatever reason.
Somehow close to 300 sea going cargo ship crewmen being abandoned each year has not created an international crisis.
If I were the U.S. “benevolent dictator” I would make it an international issue with the status of crisis.
“Secular leadership, backed by the world’s largest Christian country, has brought stability to much of the country despite US backing for Islamic militants.”
Tell me about it. I was just mimicking our media and Deep State. Watch this show, filmed in Syria, to see what’s REALLY going on there:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/inside-assads-syria/
Funny.
Two years before the mast. Followed by two years after the mast.
Did a lot of fishing for food ?
Note to those in charge of stocking the larder for future ocean-going ships. More vitamin C tablets and less painkillers. Maybe a few cases of some good scotch?
“ why would he want to go back to SYRIA?”
I’m sure his memories of that sh!thole were somehow enhanced by his interminable nautical surroundings.
True dat. Stuck on a ship beats being beheaded or burned to death by ISIS...
In the old days - before the American Press became 'butt boys' to the democrat party - this travesty might have been looked into as a human rights violation. In today's world of redefined terms -'human rights' only applies to leftwing 'victims'...
Guess it doesn't matter much anymore - the press has so little respect and trust nowadays...
I would hunt that clown down and extract 4 years worth of pay.
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