Settle wages of stranded sailors

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered disbursement of 17-month salaries to 14 sailors, who were stranded on the South Korean-flagged OSM Arena, anchored off Chennai Port for the past 17 months due to a legal dispute.Passing the order, Justice V Ramasubramanian directed the Senior Immigration Officer, Chennai Port, and all other authorities concerned to ensure without fail that the entire arrears of wages of all the crew members (both Korean and Myanmarese) had been paid in full by the third respondent, Shinhan Bank, Korea.The judge also directed the Shinhan Bank to ensure that the entire expenses for repatriation of all the crew members to their respective countries was borne by them.The ordeal of the 14 crew members came to an end after 17 months after the Shinhan Bank agreed to shoulder the responsibility, purely on humanitarian grounds.