India’s Orissa High Court has ordered authorities to repatriate 23 seafarers from the detained tanker Unity at Paradip, ruling that the crew qualify as abandoned seafarers. Splash247, writing on 8 October, said the judgment this week found that the owner had failed to pay wages, provide essential supplies and arrange crew changes or repatriation, and that the circumstances fell within the abandonment provisions of India’s Merchant Shipping Act, 2025. The court also cited the Maritime Labour Convention’s requirements on repatriation and abandoned crews. Port News, timed 8 October, dated the ruling to 6 October and named the hull as Unity, IMO 9388792.
That is the working primary. Tuesday’s order is a port-State abandonment and manning direction, not a new sanctions listing and not a rewrite of the May bunker-fuel arrest that put the ship at Paradip in the first place. The useful facts for a DPA, a P&I correspondent and a crew manager are the 23 people, the three-week clock, the replacement-crew requirement, and the right to recover costs from the owner. Do not treat a court order as a completed homecoming, and do not treat a P&I top-up of wages as a finding that the abandonment file is closed.
What the court actually directed
The master and 22 crew have remained aboard Unity after the tanker was arrested in three admiralty cases. Splash said the ship’s P&I insurer subsequently provided supplies and paid outstanding wages. That subsequent payment is why the operational problem is now repatriation and relief, not a ship with no food and a still-unpaid wage account on the public record. It is not a finding that the owner performed the MLC. The court still treated the crew as abandoned under the 2025 Act.
Port News said the order covers master Istyagin Evegeny Nikolaevich and the vessel’s other 22 crew members: 20 Russian nationals, one Kazakh citizen and two Egyptian citizens. Authorities must arrange disembarkation and repatriation and provide a replacement crew so Unity remains properly manned. The measures are to be carried out as soon as possible and preferably within three weeks of receipt of the judgment. Costs of repatriation and of the replacement crew can be recovered from the shipowner or other parties found liable. Court records identify FMTC Ship Charter LLC as the owner. The company is also a defendant, alongside the tanker, in the admiralty claims.
Open particulars matching IMO 9388792: Cameroon-flag crude tanker, MMSI 613003591, call sign TJMC177, built 2009, about 245 by 42 metres, about 62,863 gt / 108,929 dwt. Registered owner and commercial manager matching is FMTC Ship Charter LLC, Dubai. Equasis and GISIS have carried earlier flag lines, including Gambia and a Zambia false-flag note; the master’s July appeal on the ILO–IMO abandonment database and the Indian reporting used this week both treat the current flag as Cameroon. Screen the IMO. Do not clear the hull because an older flag appears on a commercial screen.
Unity has been held at Paradip, in Odisha, since May under the admiralty orders. Business Standard, reporting the original arrest, said the Cameroon-flag tanker entered Paradip on 9 May carrying Russian crude for Indian Oil Corporation, completed discharge at the single-point mooring, and was then arrested on a bunker-supplier claim. Justice R. K. Pattanaik issued an ex parte interim arrest on 11 May under Section 5(1)(a) of the Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Act, 2017. The principal claim cited was $369,750, with more than ₹4 crore still said to be outstanding after part-payments once interest and costs were included. The vessel has since remained at anchorage, about 10 kilometres off the Paradip coast on later Indian reporting. That May file is why the ship is still there. Tuesday’s judgment is why the 23 people are supposed to leave it.
An MLC file that was already on the ILO–IMO board
The joint ILO–IMO database on abandoned seafarers had already recorded Unity. OdishaBytes, writing in September, said the listing cited outstanding wages and pending repatriation of Russian seafarers, and that a 16 July communication from the Russian Consulate General in Kolkata, also logged on the database, said employment contracts had expired and the sailors had remained on board beyond their contractual period. The Consulate’s count then was the same 23 people Port News used this week: 20 Russian, one Kazakh, two Egyptian. IMO forwarded an urgent request to member States on 16 July. The master’s own appeal on the database described a humanitarian situation, expired contracts and unpaid wages for May and June totalling $223,533 at that date. Use that as the reason the High Court was not writing on a blank page. Do not brief the July wage figure as the current arrears. Splash’s 8 October report is that P&I subsequently paid outstanding wages and provided supplies.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs had already been in contact with the Russian embassy on crew welfare while the tanker remained under the Odisha High Court arrest. That September MEA line is diplomatic colour. It is not Tuesday’s three-week direction, and it is not a completed repatriation. Port News said the Russian embassy in New Delhi and the consulate in Kolkata had been working with Indian central and regional authorities on the return of the Russian crew. Home-State interest does not move a detained tanker. It does bear on visas, flights and who meets the 23 people when they land.
Keep Tuesday off the dedicated 5 October 11:30 Japan 35-IMO vessel-level permit and off the 3 October UK LNG-carrier specifications. Those are resident-services and shipping-trade sanctions stacks on named or numbered hulls. Unity’s UK, EU and allied designations, where they exist on commercial screens, are a reason a replacement crew, a port agent and a P&I correspondent will need a licences-and-payments check before they board or pay. They are not the instrument the Orissa High Court used. The court used the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025, and the MLC. Do not recast an abandonment order as a new OFAC, OFSI or EU listing, and do not recast it as a Hormuz or Black Sea kinetic file.
Keep it off the Asana desk as well. The Secretary-General’s 2 October increment still had 22 seafarers held on Asana after Honour 25, Seamull (Sibu 1) and Eureka were freed. That is a piracy-hostage product. Unity’s 23 people are abandoned in a port-State arrest, not captives in Somali waters.
Operational implications
An abandonment order on a detained tanker is a manning and welfare problem before it is a trading debate. The ship cannot sail while the admiralty arrests remain. It also cannot be left without a crew that meets safe-manning once the 23 people are landed. The court’s replacement-crew direction is the point operators will miss if they read only the repatriation headline. Someone has to put a new master and crew on a Cameroon-flag, court-detained, previously abandoned aframax at Paradip anchorage, with wages, stores, insurance and, where applicable, sanctions licences in place, preferably inside three weeks of the judgment reaching the authorities.
Crew managers and P&I correspondents who still have people on Unity should treat 6 October as the clock, not as a press-release. Collect seafarer identity documents, expired contracts, wage ledgers, the P&I payment record, medical records and next-of-kin details now. The Russian, Kazakh and Egyptian consular channels will have to match flight and visa capacity to the three-week preference. A delayed ticket is not compliance because the ship is still at anchor.
Owners, charterers and bunker claimants in the three admiralty actions should assume the court will look unkindly on any attempt to hold the crew as informal security for a cargo, bunker or necessaries claim. MLC abandonment is a separate legal track from the 2017 admiralty arrests. The arrests can continue. The 23 people are not supposed to remain the surety. Costs of repatriation and of the replacement crew are recoverable from FMTC Ship Charter LLC or other liable parties on the court’s own terms. That recovery right is not a reason to wait for the owner to volunteer a ticket.
Indian port and Directorate General of Shipping desks that will execute the order need a written plan for boats, immigration, customs of personal effects, and who is the ISM manager of the replacement crew. Paradip is not a crew-change hub with daily long-haul lift. The 10-kilometre anchorage is a launch and weather problem. If the replacement crew is late, the abandoned crew cannot be landed without a manning gap unless the court or the administration accepts a caretaker arrangement. Do not brief a three-week preference as an automatic safe-manning holiday.
Do not fold Tuesday into Japan’s 35-ship permit, the UK’s 1 October LNG specifications, the UAE MPCI container-filing mandate, or Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority declaration channel. Those are sanctions, documentation and Gulf coastal-state products. Tuesday’s file is a named Cameroon-flag tanker, IMO 9388792, 23 abandoned seafarers at Paradip, Merchant Shipping Act 2025, replacement crew, three-week clock.
What Operators Should Note
- Log a 6 October abandonment order, not a completed repatriation. Orissa High Court: Unity, IMO 9388792, Paradip, 23 seafarers abandoned under India’s Merchant Shipping Act, 2025, MLC cited. Disembark, repatriate, and put a replacement crew on board, as soon as possible, preferably within three weeks of receipt of the judgment. Splash247 and Port News published the ruling on 8 October. Do not treat a newspaper date as the clock.
- Name the 23 people as the operational load, not the hull. Master Istyagin Evegeny Nikolaevich plus 22: 20 Russian, one Kazakh, two Egyptian. Contracts had expired. The ILO–IMO database already had the case. Splash says P&I subsequently paid outstanding wages and supplied the ship. That payment does not cancel the abandonment finding or the three-week direction.
- Keep a replacement crew on the same file as the tickets home. The arrests remain. The ship must stay manned. Costs of repatriation and of the new crew are recoverable from owner FMTC Ship Charter LLC or other liable parties. A manning gap at Paradip anchorage is a port-State and ISM problem, not a reason to hold the abandoned crew as unpaid watchkeepers.
- Do not merge this with the May bunker arrest, and do not ignore it. The tanker discharged Russian crude for Indian Oil at the Paradip SPM on 9 May and was arrested on 11 May on a bunker claim. Three admiralty cases are why the hull is still there. They are not a lawful basis to keep 23 people on board after an abandonment ruling.
- Screen IMO 9388792 for flag, owner and any existing sanctions before boarding a relief crew. Current reporting treats the flag as Cameroon; MMSI 613003591, 2009, about 62,863 gt / 108,929 dwt, FMTC Ship Charter LLC. Earlier Gambia/Zambia lines are registry history. Existing UK/EU and allied designations, where they appear on a commercial screen, are a payments-and-licences check. They are not Tuesday’s instrument.
- Keep this off Japan’s 35 IMOs, London’s LNG list and the Asana hostage desk. Tuesday is a port-State MLC order at Paradip. Do not recast it as a new worldwide listing, a completed homecoming, a Hormuz file, or a rewrite of Honour 25 / Asana.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining the Orissa High Court’s 6 October Unity order against the ILO–IMO abandonment listing and the May Paradip arrest so operators can treat the 23-person, three-week relief as a live manning-and-welfare clock, not as a closed wage dispute or a reason to leave an abandoned crew on a detained tanker.
