Shal­iza?Has­sanali

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 138 In­done­sian and Viet­namese na­tion­als were res­cued yes­ter­day by mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices af­ter they had com­plained of go­ing hun­gry for days on sev­er­al fish­ing ves­sels which were an­chored near the port of Port-of-Spain and Ch­aguara­mas.

Sev­er­al Chi­nese na­tion­als who al­so worked on the ves­sels which were with­out food and wa­ter had re­port­ed­ly evad­ed mem­bers of the Coast Guard, Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, Port Health and Port Au­thor­i­ty who came in search of them yes­ter­day. Up to last night, the men, who worked as crew mem­bers, were be­ing ques­tioned by Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion.

A source at the port said the ves­sels were grant­ed shore leave and the crew mem­bers did not re­quire work per­mits. Sun­day Guardian was told that the Port Au­thor­i­ty was no­ti­fied that the sea­men were in dis­tress, hun­gry and had not been paid for months by its em­ploy­ers.

"Port Health went on board the ves­sels which were in a filthy con­di­tion. Right now the In­done­sian gov­ern­ment is try­ing to get their na­tion­als back home."