11 Filipinos stranded in Mombasa to be repatriated

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The 11 Filipinos attending a mass at the Mission for seafarers chapel in Mombasa before their repatriation /JANET MURIKIRA

Mombasa,KENYA:11 Filipino citizens that have been stranded at the Mombasa port since December are to be repatriated on Monday.

The Filipinos aged between 22 and 42 had been stranded in the fishing vessel lacking basic needs such as water, food, pay and shore leave; before they were rescued by officials from the mission for Seamen in Mombasa .

“When we found them stranded in the vessel, the embassy was already handling their case but they had made arrangements to ensure their salaries are paid,” said Moses Muli the chaplain at Mission for seafarers.

One of the Filipinos, Ernersto Salafar told Baraka FM that he had been promised a job in Malaysia at  a monthly salary of $350 sh (35,000) by the recruiting agency when he left Philippines last year but was convinced to stay in the vessel that has been grounded at the Mombasa port.

Officials from the mission for seafarers, say that the Lapaz registered vessel has been grounded at the Mombasa port for the last four years before the initial owner sold it and his crew traveled back to China;  to the new owner who  hired crew from the Philippines .

However, the Mission says that the vessel owner and the recruiting agency had agreed to pay the stranded workers their full salaries for the time they had been stranded.

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