The In­done­sian Gov­ern­ment has thanked T&T for its co-op­er­a­tion in repa­tri­at­ing the 154 In­done­sian sea­men who were strand­ed in T&T for three months last year.In a re­lease yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs said these sen­ti­ments were con­veyed to Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an by Am­bas­sador of In­done­sia to T&T Gagarin Djat­miko-Singgih.

In Oc­to­ber last year, it was dis­cov­ered that the sea­men were strand­ed on four fish­ing ves­sels–Rich 5, Full­ness 6, Full­ness 2 and Full­ness 5–in Ch­aguara­mas.They had been ma­rooned in T&T since the Tai­wanese com­pa­ny they worked for went in­sol­vent ear­ly last year, leav­ing them with­out months of salaries and trans­port home.

The own­er of the ves­sels was not able to get the crew or the ves­sels back to In­done­sia.While in T&T, the crew sur­vived on the boats be­cause of hand­outs from good samar­i­tans.

Af­ter be­ing alert­ed to the men's plight, the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs con­tact­ed the In­done­sian Gov­ern­ment, which arranged for the men to re­turn home.

In the re­lease, Djat­miko-Singgih in­di­cat­ed his hope that co-op­er­a­tion on con­sular af­fairs and oth­er ar­eas be­tween In­done­sia and T&T would be fruit­ful and con­tin­ue to flour­ish in the fu­ture.