Ship crews suffer in Asian crisis

Ship crews suffer in Asian crisis

SINGAPORE (AP): Asia's economic crisis has left a growing
number of ships' crews stranded in ports without food or other
essential supplies, forcing some sailors to sell ship parts for
scrap in order to survive, a news report in Singapore said on
Wednesday.

The owner of the Singapore-registered vessel Wan Ling, which
was stuck in Vietnam, stopped providing the ship's 24 crew
members with food and other necessities in November, The Shipping
Times newspaper said.

Wan Ling crewmen, mostly Indonesian, Philippines, Myanmar and
Bangladeshi citizens, sold parts of the ship to buy basic
necessities, but have since received some provisions from the
London-based International Transport Workers Federation.

The Wan Ling is "not an isolated case, it's a result of the
economic crisis", Simon Des Baux, federation regional assistant,
was quoted as telling the newspaper.