A court in India has ordered the government to send home the 23 seafarers of the oil tanker MT Unity. The ship has been at anchor off Paradip port, in the state of Odisha, since May 2026.
The Orissa High Court gave the order on 6 October 2026. It said the owner had abandoned the ship and its crew. It asked the authorities to act quickly, if possible within three weeks of receiving the judgment.
As of 20 October, the crew were still on board. Russian diplomats said the main problem is that no replacement crew is ready to take over the ship.
How the crew got stuck
MT Unity is a crude oil tanker. Media reports say it flies the flag of Cameroon. The court papers list the flag as Cameroon or Sierra Leone. The crew told the court that the flag state had disowned the ship.
The ship arrived at Paradip on 11 May 2026 to discharge crude oil. On the same day, the High Court arrested it. This was security for a money claim against the owner in an admiralty case, a court case about ships. The New Indian Express reported that the dispute is about unpaid bills for bunker fuel.
The ship was arrested again on 22 May and on 15 July in two more cases. After discharging, the ship moved to the anchorage.
What the master told the court
The master, a Russian national, asked the court for help on behalf of himself and the 22 other crew. According to the judgment, he said:
The crew had not been paid since May 2026.
The contracts of 16 crew members, including his own, had already ended.
Food, drinking water and other supplies were running out.
The owner and the manager stopped answering. The manager said it was no longer connected with the ship.
Sludge and bilge water were building up, and there were technical problems on board, including total blackouts.
The ship was then listed in the ILO-IMO database of abandoned seafarers, the judgment says. An ITF inspector told all parties about this on 14 July. The ITF is the International Transport Workers' Federation, a global union.
The ship's P&I insurer, the Russian company Soglasie, then stepped in. P&I insurance covers a shipowner's duties to crew and others. The insurer sent food and drinking water and paid the unpaid wages, India Today reported. It also agreed to pay for the crew's trip home. But it said it cannot provide a new crew for the ship.
Most of the crew are Russian. India Today quoted the Russian Consulate General in Kolkata: 20 Russians, two Egyptians and one from Kazakhstan. The RIA Novosti news agency reported 21 Russians.
What the court decided
Lawyers for the Indian government said the owner or the people who arrested the ship should find a new crew. The court did not accept this.
Justice R.K. Pattanaik said the ship is an abandoned vessel under India's Merchant Shipping Act, 2025. Under Section 92 of this law, the government must send a replacement crew if the owner does not. It can later get the money back from the owner.
The judge said the crew "cannot be left abandoned indefinitely till the maritime claims are settled". He also said foreign seafarers in India have the right to life and dignity under India's Constitution.
The court gave the order to the Indian government and three maritime offices. These are the Shipping Master and the Mercantile Marine Department in Kolkata, and the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA). They must take the crew off, send them home and put a replacement crew on board.
When can the crew go home
On 13 October the Russian Consulate General in Kolkata told RIA Novosti that there were no exact dates yet. It said lawyers were studying the judgment and the other side had one month to appeal. A crew member told RIA Novosti that lawyers had promised the crew they would leave by 28 October.
On 20 October the consulate spoke to the Russian news site Life. It said the main problem is that there is no replacement crew. India had confirmed in writing that it has no claims against the seafarers, the consulate said. India is ready to help them go home once a new crew is on board.
What abandoned crews can do
The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) says when a crew is abandoned. This is when the owner does not pay for the trip home, or leaves the crew without food, water and support. It is also when the owner stops paying wages for at least two months.
Check the abandonment insurance certificate. Under the MLC, ships of countries that ratified it must carry this insurance. The certificate must be posted on board in English, with the insurer's contact details.
The insurance covers up to four months of unpaid wages, the ITF says. It also covers the trip home, food, water, fuel for survival and medical care.
Do not wait. If the owner does not respond, contact the insurer yourself. Your family, a union or an ITF inspector can also do this.
Contact an ITF inspector or your union. You can email the ITF at abandonment@itf.org.uk. You can also tell your consulate and the port state authorities.
Before you join a ship, search the ILO abandonment database by the ship's IMO number.
Read more on Crewboard: Seven Egyptian seafarers unpaid and stuck on a detained ship in Safaga.
Cover photo: A view of Paradip port in Odisha, India, published by the Paradip Port Authority in December 2021. Photo: Paradip Port Authority/Wikimedia Commons, Government Open Data License – India (GODL-India).
Sources: Orissa High Court: W.P.(C) No. 25001 of 2026, Istyagin Evegeny Nikolaevich, Master of MT Unity v. Union of India, judgment of 6 October 2026 (PDF via LiveLaw), LiveLaw: Seafarers too have right to live with dignity: Orissa High Court directs Centre to repatriate foreign crew of abandoned vessel (12 Oct 2026), India Today: Orissa HC orders abandoned MT Unity crew's repatriation within three weeks (9 Oct 2026), The New Indian Express: Repatriate 23 crew members stranded on tanker: Odisha HC to Centre (10 Oct 2026), RIA Novosti: No dates yet for repatriation of the Unity tanker crew (13 Oct 2026, in Russian), RIA Novosti: Russian sailors from the Unity tanker can leave the ship by 28 October (13 Oct 2026, in Russian), Life: India ready to let Russian sailors leave the Unity tanker, but one obstacle remains (20 Oct 2026, in Russian), ITF Seafarers: Abandoned seafarers.
