Tycoon’s Downfall Pushes Trapped Seafarers to Hunger Strike
- Turkish magnate’s shipping empire in tatters as he faces trial
- Ship, crew abandonment cases on rise with global pandemic
Source: International Transport Workers’ Federation
When Turkish police arrested shipping magnate Mübariz Mansimov Gurbanoğlu at his Istanbul home one Sunday last March, his legal woes set off a chain of events that have decimated Palmali Shipping, his once-flourishing maritime empire. Now a dozen of its ships sit abandoned in ports around the Mediterranean with nearly 150 mariners stuck on board, many without adequate food and water.
Workers on at least two Palmali ships have gone on hunger strike to protest the treatment they say they’ve endured. For a crew marooned in Beirut, the dramatic measure appears to have worked. After a nine-day strike, they were put on flights home Wednesday and offered $114,000 to cover some of their lost wages -- less than 40% of what they’re owed. Some hadn’t been paid in 15 months.