“'Want to go home': Indonesian crew abandoned off Africa demand wages”

He is among a growing number of migrant workers abandoned by shipowners, who flout their obligations and desert crews without paying the salaries owed.

"My family cries because I can't get any money. My children and wife need money to eat," Surono, 47, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP from the abandoned ship in Cape Verde.

"We want to go home, but if we go home without money, then what? We've been working ourselves to the bone out at sea. How can we just be abandoned like that?"

The engine technician flew from Indonesia to Namibia in March 2025 to work onboard the Portuguese-flagged Novo Ruivo, a tuna longliner fishing boat…

Surono contacted the ITF, who reported the Novo Ruivo abandoned to authorities and helped contact the Indonesian embassy in Dakar, Senegal…

The designated shipowner, Spaniard Javier Martinez of the Somar Produtos do Mar company, told AFP he does not have the money but is trying to solve the problem.

"They have not been abandoned. They have everything on the boat -- electricity, fresh water and food," he said…