February 9, 2021
DUBAI, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Nearly four years into their odyssey at sea, the five-member crew of oil tanker MT Iba is tantalizingly close to shore, yet still unable to set foot on dry land.
Bleary-eyed and wearing tattered clothes, the men are exhausted from an ordeal that has kept them from their families and aboard the 5,000-tonne vessel long after its owner abandoned it in the Gulf.
What started out as a regular seafaring job turned into what the men call a nightmare, when the tanker’s owner, Alco Shipping, fell into financial trouble and stopped paying their salaries 32 months ago.