The 11 crew members stranded on board a Latvian-registered ship for the past six weeks appear to have no immediate prospect of being paid or getting home.
According to the International Transport Federation (ITF), the owners of the Fortuna Ido not appear to have money to pay the crew their wages or to pay for it to return to Greenore port, where it had previously docked, so the men can go ashore. It claimed the Irish and Latvian authorities had failed to respond to the men's situation and said it may have to seek to have the vessel seized.
ITF inspector Ken Fleming said the crew in effect had been abandoned by their employer and denied access to the port.
It was possible the men would never receive outstanding wages due to them once administrative, legal and other costs had been deducted from the sale price of the vessel, he said.
The crew, with the assistance of the ITF, succeeded in getting pay arrears to the end of March and they then unloaded its cargo at Greenore. Once this was done the ship had to leave port and has been moored at the entrance to Carlingford Lough ever since.
It is believed the ship can not return to Latvia because the Latvian Maritime Agency will not give permission to have its registration renewed before a number of repairs are carried out and certified. Mr Fleming criticised the Department of Transport for not inspecting the vessel to see if it now met safety requirements since a previous inspection on April 4th.
"It is ironic that only days after the Irish Maritime Development Office issued its glowing report for 2006, congratulating the shipping industry on strong growth, we are still having to fight for the basic rights of seafarers," he said.
"Goods worth €158 billion were transported in and out of the Republic by sea last year, keeping our economy going, yet almost every week there are cases of ships, and ships' crews being abandoned."
Mr Fleming continued: "What makes the situation on the Fortunaall the worse is the lack of co-operation and seeming indifference of the Latvian and Irish authorities to the plight of these 11 seafarers. They have been literally stranded with no immediate hope of being paid or returning home."
A Department of Transport spokeswoman said yesterday that its officials were liaising with theharbour master in relation to the vessel and this was "ongoing".