Six ships belonging to a bankrupt Russian company were arrested and put up for auction in Hong Kong. Each vessel carries a crew of 15 to 16 people, mostly residents of Nakhodka and Vladivostok.
"The Far Eastern regional organization of the Russian Trade Union of Sailors (RPSM) is monitoring the situation on the arrested vessels," RPSM chairman Nikolai Sukhanov said.
The ships' names are ST Brilliance, ST Fidelity, ST Spirit, ST Star, ST Forward and ST Leader. They were run by the Vladivostok-based ST Shipmanagement company, and sailed under the flag of the Marshall Islands.
Earlier, all these ships -- on which wages to the crews were not paid for six months -- were berthed in the port of Nakhodka.
A Hong Kong bank allocated 20 million dollars on deeds of pledge, and the ships were moved to Hong Kong where they had to be sold off.
The shipowner cleared all the wage arrears, and the bank was about to sell all the six ships, but a Hong Kong court demanded that the ships be sold at an auction.
Nikolai Sukhanov said the crews might return to Russia's Primorye Territory after the auction, and that the new shipowner might pay their traveling expenses. However, he did not rule out that Russian sailors might ask the new employer to hire them.
The RPSM gets weekly updates on the situation on the arrested vessels from chairman of Hong Kong's Seamen's Union Ting Kam Yuen.
On Friday, the Russian consulate general in Hong Kong said it was watching the situation with auction.
"So far we've had no information that the rights of the Russian sailors might have been violated," vice consul Victoria Prokhorova told Itar-Tass.
"The Far Eastern regional organization of the Russian Trade Union of Sailors (RPSM) is monitoring the situation on the arrested vessels," RPSM chairman Nikolai Sukhanov said.
The ships' names are ST Brilliance, ST Fidelity, ST Spirit, ST Star, ST Forward and ST Leader. They were run by the Vladivostok-based ST Shipmanagement company, and sailed under the flag of the Marshall Islands.
Earlier, all these ships -- on which wages to the crews were not paid for six months -- were berthed in the port of Nakhodka.
A Hong Kong bank allocated 20 million dollars on deeds of pledge, and the ships were moved to Hong Kong where they had to be sold off.
The shipowner cleared all the wage arrears, and the bank was about to sell all the six ships, but a Hong Kong court demanded that the ships be sold at an auction.
Nikolai Sukhanov said the crews might return to Russia's Primorye Territory after the auction, and that the new shipowner might pay their traveling expenses. However, he did not rule out that Russian sailors might ask the new employer to hire them.
The RPSM gets weekly updates on the situation on the arrested vessels from chairman of Hong Kong's Seamen's Union Ting Kam Yuen.
On Friday, the Russian consulate general in Hong Kong said it was watching the situation with auction.
"So far we've had no information that the rights of the Russian sailors might have been violated," vice consul Victoria Prokhorova told Itar-Tass.