"It happened thanks to you"

With these words, the seafarer thanked  the  SUR Primary Organization of Vladivostok which  help him to  sign off from the vessel. 

Earlier, the 2nd Engineer of the m/v CAPTAIN KANG (IMO 9342944, flag of Togo), staying under repair in China, turned to the trade union for help: according to Dmitry, at that time the crew had not been paid for two months, and when he himself wrote a  letter of resignation and asked for repatriation, he was transferred to the passengers. The seafarer did not have any documents on his hands, and the shipowner, a Nakhodka-based company LAM, ignored all his requests.

To sort out the situation, the Primary Organization immediately contacted the company's  Personnel Department. Having received a payroll from the inspector confirming that the crew member was not fully paid for the last three months, the trade union turned to the Coordinator of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in London with a request to facilitate the repatriation of the Russian seafarer from China. 

ITF, in  turn, sent a letter to the ship's flag state administration, which also took part in the fate of the seafarer and contacted the shipowner. 

The  SUR Primary Organization of Vladivostok was informed that the company is in the process of obtaining a Chinese visa for the 2nd Engineer, despite the difficulties with both the purchase of an air ticket and, in general, with repatriation from the country. Nevertheless, the flight of the 2nd Engineer was scheduled on the 28th of March.

Already on the 26th of March the trade union received a message from Dmitry that he would soon get home: “I have just received the tickets and first of all I have decided to inform you: on Tuesday, the agent picks me up and takes me to the airport, he  gives me my passports. Thank you for your help! You have helped me so much, it all has happened thanks to you.”

Source: sur-vl.ru