They said that the tanker (with the flag of Guyana) entered the Caribbean Sea, heading from Sri Lanka via Oman. They were allegedly told that they were going to Curacao (under Dutch jurisdiction). Near this island, 80 km from the coast of Venezuela, the ship began to drift.
“The turning point for the team was the change of flag. […] When the US Coast Guard began to pursue him, the Russian tricolor was displayed on board, although, according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the flag cannot be changed on the high seas. To do this, you need to go to the port and confirm re-registration, while Bella 1 changed its flag simply on the move in the middle of the Atlantic,” the media report says.
The Ukrainians told Suspilny that when the crew realized that the ship was heading to Venezuela and was still planning to switch to the Russian flag, 23 crew members, including a Georgian captain and a senior Ukrainian officer, signed a statement asking to replace crew members “due to the tense situation in the region, changing the ship’s flag to Russian and force majeure, threats to the safety of life and health of sailors and to avoid future legal problems and persecution.”
The media showed the statement, dated December 19, but noted that it could not confirm whether it was actually written that day.
“The Ukrainians said that we would not work under the Russian flag. We told them: “If you want, change the flag, please, but disembark us and put another crew here.” After that, literally the next day, this chase began,” the media notes.
According to Suspilny’s interlocutors from the tanker’s crew, the captain turned the ship towards the Atlantic because the owner company ordered so.
“The sailors say that they knew nothing of what was happening from the moment of the chase. And, according to one of them, the Internet was turned off on board, so they could not even contact their families. They also expressed their resistance in actions. The sailors responsible for the technical support of the ship transferred the engine room completely under automatic control. According to one of the interlocutors, people almost did not go down there and the ship sailed without human intervention during all the days of the chase,” the story says.
Context
After detention Marinera he was moved to the shores of Scotland, and the sailors were offered to testify in the United States, and five crew members agreed to this, others were bought tickets to wherever they wanted, Suspilne reported.
“According to the Scottish police, not a single one has asked for asylum in this country. However, none of those with whom we spoke are planning to return to Ukraine. The men say they are afraid of persecution and being suspected of high treason,” Suspilne reported.
According to the Ukrainian sailors, they were not paid for the last month of work, and the company that hired them deleted all their accounts along with correspondence from Telegram and WhatsApp.
