JAKARTA - Taiwanese marine authorities have agreed to allow nine Myanmar sailors to replace eight Indonesian crew members (ABK) who have been stranded for more than seven months at Kaohsiung Port.
Currently, their visa application is being processed at the Taiwan representative office in Myanmar, the authorities under Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC) said Tuesday, October 4.
The Myanmar sailors will replace Indonesian sailors aboard the Jian Ye ship, towed to Kaohsiung Port in February 2022, as reported by the Taiwanese news agency, CNA.
The Togo-listed cargo ship was pulled to Kaohsiung City to avoid disasters and possible pollution in the high seas in waters near Taiwan.
However, Taiwanese authorities cannot confirm the arrival of Myanmar sailors or the length of the quarantine period.
Local authorities only agreed that the planned arrival and handover of crew would be completed in one day.
The development of the case made progress after Indonesian crew members sent a statement to CNA in September that they did not receive a monthly salary, reported by Antara.
The crew also said they could not leave the ship, which is 74.07 meters long and weighs 1,395 tons, since the ship was pulled to ports in the southern region of Taiwan Island on February 23.
The MOTC ordered them to stay on the ship until the crew just arrived to replace it, Indonesian sailors wrote in their letter to the Taiwanese news agency.
Indonesian crew members asked to be allowed to return to Indonesia so that they could gather with their families in their hometown and look for new jobs to support their families.
Ansensius Guntur of Stella Maris, who provided assistance to the crew, said the crew members' work contracts expired on September 6 and that they were willing to terminate their work contracts with the old employers.
In the work agreement, they were paid 22,216 Taiwan dollars (Rp10.6 million) per month.
However, they must agree not to file a lawsuit, both civil and criminal, according to the agreement they made.
Every Indonesian crew member will get a plane ticket from Kaohsiung to Jakarta and meet the costs incurred while in Kaohsiung.
The Indonesian crew members agreed to the agreement because all they wanted was to go home as soon as possible.
The Legal Aid Foundation was previously willing to provide legal assistance to Indonesian crew members in order to get their rights of 22.216 Taiwan dollars per month from the new owner of the ship.
Even though the ship already has a new employer, Indonesian crew members just want to go home without filing a lawsuit for a salary they have not received, the umar legal aid agency from Taiwan.
In August this year, the port authority had offered to return some of the crew with the help of the Indonesian government, without having to wait for the arrival of the replacement crew.
The condition is that a third of the crew must stay on the ship for the safety of the ship.
The Indonesian crew members rejected the offer because they could not determine who had to go home and who had to stay, said Guntur.
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