Photo: ITF

High Court arrests would-be runaway vessel
Fishing vessel at Ullapool  arrested over non-payment of crew wages

 

International labour union body the ITF has announced that the Enxembre - the St Kitts flagged fishing vessel at the centre of a standoff between owners and crew in Ullapool - has been arrested. This means that it is now detained while legal claims are settled.

ITF inspector Norrie McVicar explained:

“At the crew’s request we have helped them have the ship arrested by the Scottish High Court. This took place at 12:15 today.

"It is a major step but one they felt they had no choice but to take when told by the owners that a new crew was on its way from Portugal to sail the vessel away today, and that they would be flown home unpaid.

"With no guarantee that they would be paid their owed wages once they’d got home they fell back on the only tangible safeguard they could – the ship.”

The Enxembre has recently changed flags and name, at which point the crew called in the ITF, alleging that they hadn’t been paid for several months. Negotiations between the ITF and the owners to secure them this money and flights home broke down yesterday.

The crew will remain onboard the ship following its arrest, and will be visited around 15:00 today by members of the STUC, RMT and Nautilus union who will bring them food.