Crew 'In fear of lives' barricaded on Irish Ferry

A ship operating in the Irish sea has been sent out to anchor off Heysham and its crew have barricaded themselves aboard the vessel 'in fear of their lives'

Yesterday inspectors from the International Transport Federation boarded the ship in Belfast to investigate claims by the crew that they were owed in excess of 150,000 euros in wages.

MERCHANT BRILLIANT was detained at Dublin in December of last year over the disputed wages owed to the crew

The ITF's inspectors Ken Fleming and Bill Anderson sailed with the ship to England last night but Norfolk Line, who have chartered the vessel, first for their Dublin-Heysham service, and latterly, the Belfast-Heysham route, suspended the charter from Latvian owners ADG Shipping. The Heysham harbour master ordered the ship out of port to make way for other vessels and she has ridden at anchor since.

Mr Fleming is attributed with claiming that the Russian and Latvian crew have barricaded themselves in a section of the ship because they are in fear of their lives. Norfolk Line had asked the crew to take the ship over to Heysham from Belfast, but the crew only agreed on the condition they were accompanied by ITF officials.

ADG Shipping were forced to pay 127,971 euros in back wages to crew of sister vessel the MERCHANT BRAVERY last November. At the time Mr Fleming said "We have to clean up what is happening on the Irish Sea"

MERCHANT BRAVERY was also detained by port authorities at Belfast for seven days with 9 deficiencies in December.

ADG Shipping is based in Latvia. They have a Hamburg based division which deals with technical management and a crewing company operating from St Petersburg.

The ITF issued the following statement today:

The ship Merchant Brilliant is currently at anchor three miles off of Heysham (UK) with crew members, two ITF inspectors and two Russian representatives of the owners on board. Ten of the crew members have barricaded themselves in following threats made against them, their homes and families by the owner’s representatives. The two ITF inspectors (Bristol based Bill Anderson and Dublin based Ken Fleming) joined them, feeling that their presence onboard would help protect the crew. As of 13:50 today they continue to seek to settle the crew’s claims for back pay peaceably, at which time the ship will be likely to be able to return to the port, which it was requested to leave when talks reached a deadlock.

There has been a long running dispute between the Latvia based (but believed to be Russian-controlled) company ADG Shipmanagement SIA and the crew. An apparent agreement on repatriation and owed wages negotiated with the help of the ITF was not honoured as expected yesterday when the vessel travelled to Heysham and the owners’ representatives arrived with no money and instead intimidated the crew.

The ITF believes that the owners are being deliberately obstructive as a negotiating tactic, and that an agreement is achievable.