16 Indian crew members of MV Anastasia have reached India after the shipping company arranged a crew change in Japan on 10th February. They arrived in Mumbai yesterday. The ship was stuck at Chinese port of Caofeidian since September 2020.

 
MV Anastasia and MV Jag Anand were transporting coal from Australia to China as they were stuck in the Chinese ports. Both the ships were refused permission by Chinese authorities to offload their cargo and leave, citing Covid-19-related restrictions.

 
However, on 24 December, the Ministry of External Affairs had said that other ships, which arrived after these two, were allowed to offload cargo and leave, and the reasons for this were unclear. It created more confusion regarding the Chinese system.

 
Around mid-December last year, China officially announced a ban on Australian coal imports as tensions between the two countries intensified, unofficial signs of which could be traced back to June 2020. The seafarers caught in the middle of a geopolitical feud between China and Australia faced great mental and physical sufferings.

 
A spokesperson from Mumbai-based Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd, which owns Jag Anand, told Prasar Bharati that they were mainly waiting for a go-ahead from the Chinese cargo owner for moving away from Chinese coast, without which they would have faced legal action.

 
Given the grave humanitarian situation, Indian Ambassador in China Vikram Misri had personally taken up the issue of Jag Anand with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister. Indian Embassy in Beijing had been constantly trying to break this deadlock while Chinese foreign ministry put the onus on freight forwarder for not allowing the ships to leave the port, adding that they are in touch with Indian side.