Eight Hyderabad seafarers return home from Spain

HYDERABAD: A group of Indian seafarers, who were stranded in Barcelona, Spain, when the lockdown was announced reached home finally. Among the 23 seafarers were eight sailors from Hyderabad.
“We are greatly relieved that he is back,” said Vijay Krishna, brother-in-law of seafarer Sandeep Bhagwan Haarti, who reached his Yapral house. Among those who returned was one sailor from Nizamabad and two from Visakhapatnam in AP.
“It was after 110 days of waiting that they could finally reach their home,” said Capt Sanjay Prashar, chairman, international maritime federation who also took up with the Indian government and embassy in Spain the issue of the stranded seafarers.
Sandeep’s sister Sangeeta pursued with the ministry of external affairs and Indian embassy in Madrid to help the Indian seafarers who had found themselves in a difficult situation due to the lockdown. Because of the Covid-19 situation and the lockdown, Sangeeta said the Indian crew were off-boarded from their cruise ship at the port of Malaga, Spain, on March 21. Since there were no flights, the sailors travelled to Barcelona until they were evacuated. All the seafarers tested negative for Covid-19 after their arrival in India.
From Mumbai, the sailors belonging to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh hired a bus and reached Nizamabad and Hyderabad on Tuesday morning. The two others are proceeding towards Vizag.