Indian crew stranded off Türkiye for months

ISTANBUL

The Mongalia-flagged cargo ship "Azra C" lies at anchor in the Sea of Marmara off Istanbul on June 4, 2026. (AFP)

Four Indian sailors have been stranded for months on an abandoned container ship off Istanbul, unable to leave under maritime rules requiring the vessel to remain manned.

In a message sent to AFP, the stranded crew members said they were losing hope after 10 months trapped on board the Mongolia-flagged AZRA C that has been moored in the Marmara Sea since August 2025.

The ship’s purported owners were arrested in January in connection with a massive international drugs bust, leaving its fate and those on board in limbo.

“Every day we are losing hope and facing increasing mental pressure and health problems,” one Indian crew member told AFP through an intermediary, asking not to be named.

The local shipping agents, who provide essential services to a vessel, had stopped providing supplies as they had not been paid.

Under international maritime law, a ship must have sufficient crew members on board at all times to handle any emergencies, whether the vessel is in port or at anchor.

This means the four sailors, who haven’t been paid for months, cannot leave until a new crew arrives.

When the vessel arrived in August, it needed repairs and its purported owners, Ahmed al-Masri and Semra al-Masri, were handling matters with the local shipping agent, an industry source said.

But then they disappeared. “We later learned they had been arrested,” the source explained.

In mid-January, Istanbul prosecutors named the pair as being among 12 people arrested by Turkish police for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.

Prosecutors said the raids were directly linked to Spain’s seizure of 10 tons of cocaine from a ship called the “United S” off the Canary Islands a week earlier.

Key among the detainees was a suspect called Çetin Gören, whom Turkish media reports also linked to the AZRA C.