India crewed ships with Australian coal stuck at Chinese ports

Two Indian crewed merchant ships carrying Australian coal have been stuck at Chinese ports for several months, union officials said Wednesday, with the sailors becoming the latest casualties of escalating tensions between Canberra and Beijing. Australia-China tensions had been deteriorating in recent years and worsened further when Canberra supported calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the covid-19 pandemic.

In response, an upset Beijing has reportedly imposed trade embargoes on Australia, including on coal, a business worth some US$10 billion a year.

Abdulgani Serang, secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India said, the Indian bulk carrier MV Jag Anand with 23 Indian crew and carrying more than 160,000 tonnes of Australian coking coal has been stuck at the Chinese port of Jingtang since mid-June after being refused permission to offload. Another vessel, Anastasia, also carrying coal from Australia and with 18 Indians on board, has been at China's Caofeidian anchorage since August 3. We have a humanitarian crisis at hand. Our seafarers are being treated inhumanely. The ships have become floating prisons and it is taking a heavy toll on the mental and physical wellbeing of the crew. Both ships have not been allowed to unload their cargo or depart for another port. The seafarers are just doing their job and paying a heavy price for no fault of theirs. It is like a food delivery guy being hammered in a fight between neighbours.

His union has written to the Indian and Chinese governments as well as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), pleading for an end to the crisis.

A letter from the wife of one of the crew members, posted Friday on Twitter tagging Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's account, said the deteriorating health of crew members is also a major concern.

The Great Eastern Shipping Company, which owns the Indian vessel Jag Anand, said it had offered to send the ship to Japan at its own cost but to no avail.

A spokesman told The Hindu newspaper, Regrettably, none of our efforts have yielded results so far.

But China's foreign ministry said Wednesday in response to an AFP query about the Jag Anand that China has never restricted it from leaving. The freight side did not wish to adjust the ship's transport arrangements, citing commercial rights and interests. This is the real reason behind the circumstances.