Four Indian Seafarers Rescued After 10 Months Stranded on Abandoned Ship off Turkey

June 8, 2026

Four Indian seafarers have been rescued after spending nearly 10 months stranded aboard the abandoned cargo ship Azra C (IMO: 8518560) anchored off Turkey.

The rescue came after Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister intervened, following media coverage of the crew's deteriorating situation.

The vessel and its condition

The Azra C is a 1986-built general cargo ship of 4,257 dwt and has operated for a Turkish company since 2023. The vessel arrived in Turkey in July 2025 for planned repairs and drydocking. In August 2025, a port state control inspection in Istanbul recorded 54 deficiencies.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) listed the vessel as abandoned as of October 1, 2025. The vessel had 15 crew members on board: 13 from India, and one each from Egypt and Turkey.

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Vessel's owner got arrested

The owners and agents initially assured the ILO that repairs were underway and that the back pay would be cleared within 15 days.

By December 2025, India's Directorate General of Shipping had become involved. Over the following months, the crew sought help from the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), the port state, the flag state, the harbour master, the P&I club, and others.

The situation deteriorated sharply in January 2026 when the vessel's owner was arrested. Port agents stopped responding, stating they too had not been paid.

By March 2026, the crew reported to the ILO that they were down to 800 litres of diesel, no more than 20 days of drinking water remaining, and that fuel would run out by the end of the month. They were running the emergency generator for only five to six hours per day for cooking and charging batteries.

Most crew repatriated, four left behind

In late March 2026, the majority of the crew were repatriated with partial pay. However, four crew members were required by international regulations to remain aboard to maintain the safety of the vessel. By May 2026, the four remaining crew wrote to the ILO stating they had not been paid for eight to nine months, had only 30 to 40 litres of diesel left, and that no assistance was coming.

Ministerial intervention leads to rescue

Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uralogly learned of the crew's situation through a report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet and ordered their repatriation to be expedited. The newspaper speculated that the Azra C had been intended for a drug smuggling operation, but the vessel's engine broke down and the owner switched to another vessel, which was subsequently captured off the Canary Islands.

Agents noted the crew's situation had become problematic following the owner's arrest, as there was no longer anyone to talk to about the crew's fate.

Turkey's coastal safety authority took control of the ship. The four crew members were evacuated by lifeboat at the end of last week and handed over to the consulate for repatriation.

Broader abandonment crisis

India's Shipping Ministry noted on June 8 that it has arranged the repatriation of more than 3,500 seafarers, many from vessels stranded in the Persian Gulf. The ITF reports that 2025 was a record year for ship abandonment, with 410 cases recorded and 6,233 seafarers affected. Turkey recorded the highest number of abandonment cases of any country in 2025, with 61 incidents. So far in 2026, the ITF has reported an additional 151 abandonment cases to French news agency AFP.