“Please help us. Take us out of here,” this is the message Sunil Rathod, one of the 16 crew members of the oil vessel Heroic Idun, wants the Indian authorities to urgently listen to. Sunil, a resident of Karnataka’s Vijayapura, has been under the detention of Equatorial Guinea Navy in West Africa since August 12 this year.
The Equatorial Guinea Navy impounded Heroic Idun on August 12 on the suspicion of breaking maritime law and illegally entering the nation's territorial waters after a request from the Nigerian Navy, according to reports. The oil vessel was escorted to Luba port in Equatorial Guinea and later, some of the crew members were made to deboard the ship and taken to a detention area close to the port by the Navy.
Out of the 26 crew members of the vessel, 16 are Indians, eight are Sri Lankans. Two others are nationals of Poland and the Philippines. “We have no clue what is happening. We don’t have any access to enough food or water. Out of the 26 crew members, 15 of us have been detained offshore in a small confined space,” Sunil told TNM. They were taken to Malabo detention center near the port on August 14 and were detained there for weeks before being taken back to the vessel. Recently they were shifted back to the detention facility
Worried that they would be taken to Nigeria for additional investigation after being detained for almost three months, Captain Tanuj Mehta said 15 crew members have again been sent to Malabo detention center. “We are not allowed to go outside. Maybe this is a step towards handing over the vessel to Nigeria. The condition has worsened and anything can happen to us,” he said.
Vijith, brother of Vismaya, whose suicide after months of domestic violence had sparked outrage in Kerala last year is also among the Indian crew detained at Equatorial Guinea. An anguished Vijith said that they are worried about the ship being handed over to Nigerian authorities. The crew suspects a Nigerian hand behind the detention of the vessel. "A Nigerian naval vessel has anchored near our ship and we don't know what will happen to us. We want the Indian government to intervene and rescue us," he said.
He said that the Equatorial Guinea Navy initially told them they would be taken to a hotel, “They made us believe that they will take us to a hotel and have jailed us here. The army has been deployed outside. I don't know how long I will have the phone in my hand. They have started checking our bags.”
According to Indian authorities, talks are underway and the crew’s safe return would be ensured. The OSM group, which manages the ship that was impounded, released a statement about the incident in the interim. “A fine was paid at the end of September against a promise of release of the vessel and its crew. However, both the ship and crew remain in captivity," the statement said. It also said they have been informed that the vessel is being moved back to Nigeria for further investigation.
It all started when Marshall Island flagship Heroic Idun sailed towards the Nigerian oilfield to fetch a shipment of crude oil, as directed by their charterer British Petroleum. Although the vessel arrived on August 8, the delivery of the oil shipment was scheduled to take place on August 17. Sunil Rathod claims that while they were waiting for authorisation at the Nigerian Akpo terminal on August 8, a Nigerian ship approached them in the shadows
“In the evening we were approached by an unidentifiable ship that claimed to be part of the Nigerian Navy and wanted us to proceed with them. However, as the craft's Automatic Identification System (AIS) was off, the crew was unable to recognise it. Later, we were informed that this was not the Nigerian Navy's standard procedure. Even the security at the Akpo port was unable to positively identify the Nigerian ship,” he said.
The crew of the Heroic Idun believed the ship to be a pirate ship because it had no identification, thus they did not stop. “We sped away from the area at full speed out of concern for the crew's safety. On August 9, we learned that the unidentified boat was in fact a Nigerian naval vessel,” he added.