Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that the government would undertake a three-stage repatriation of Indian seafarers stranded in various countries and ships.
Hours after wives and family members of some Goan seafarers were detained for protesting outside the Chief Minister’s residence in Panaji, Dr. Sawant said to begin with, seafarers on ships in Indian waters would be allowed to disembark at Indian seaports. This would be followed by allowing those on ships in the deep seas to come by sea and disembark at various Indian ports.
Permissions for these two measures of repatriation of seafarers, the Chief Minister said, would be completed in the next three-four days and eight to 10 days, respectively. In the third phase, all those seafarers currently not on ships but stranded in various parts of the world, will be allowed to return.
Dr. Sawant said he had spoken on the plight of Goan seafarers with Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and the latter had communicated the three-stage process to him.
Hunger strike
The Chief Minister on Wednesday came in for criticism from Opposition leaders after a few families gathered at his official residence and went on a hunger strike.
Gina Pereira, the agitating wife of a stranded seafarer who led the protest, said, “Today, it is just me and a few others. If the government does not act and get the seafarers back then all 8,000 seafarer families will be on the roads.”
Ms. Pereira said they had been only demanding that the government allow a safe return passage and quarantine the seafarers here without any delay.
“There are cases of seafarers dead and some in hospital in various countries due to COVID-19. The government is yet to formulate a standard operating procedure for the same,” she said. Ms. Pereira added that her husband was working with Symphony Cruises and had been quarantined for more than 18 days.
Meanwhile, Goa Forward Party leader and former deputy chief minister Vijai Sardessai said hitherto the Chief Minister had responded to the genuine anxiety of seafarers’ families with inaction and by asking for time. “With this insensitive act of detaining them, the government has proven that it lacks the courage to fight the novel coronavirus,” he said.
‘Wrong action’
State Civil Supplies Minister Govind Gaude said that the act of striking outside the Chief Minister’s residence during the COVID-19 pandemic was wrong.
“What will you get by going on strike like this? There is a procedure which has to be followed. What these families are doing is the wrong thing,” Mr. Gaude said.