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Hebei Two look set to go home
29 May 2009
There are growing signs that South Korea is responding to worldwide pressure and will allow Jasprit Chawla and Shyam Chetan – the "Hebei Two" – to return home to India.
The two seafarers have been held in South Korea following an oil spillage from their ship, Hebei Spirit, in December 2007. Although the Supreme Court overturned their prison sentences and dismissed charges against the two men, they have been detained in the country awaiting confirmation of that decision by a lower court.
Indian diplomatic sources believe the two may be released on 11 June, after they have been forced to stay away from home for more than 18 months. The South Korean assurances were given to an Indian delegation in London for talks at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
The Hebei Two have received international backing from maritime unions, shipowners and other organisations.
The most recent call for the two seafarers to be allowed to return home came at a meeting of the International Bargaining Forum (IBF) in London on 20 May 2009. Delegates from the ITF and the International Maritime Employers’ Committee issued a joint call for the release of Jasprit Chawla and Shyam Chetan. The statement said that the officers took all measures "in an exemplary manner" after their vessel had been hit by a barge and heavy lift, which caused the oil spillage.
The statement called on: "all concerned to express solidarity for the immediate release of these officers and appeal to the honourable court of Korea to consider the case in the right spirit and release these innocent officers and allow them to return home."
During the IMO's London talks, secretary-general Efthimios Mitropoulos expressed the organisation's reservations over the “grave injustice” done to the two Hebei Spirit officers by the South Korean judicial system.
Roberto Giorgi, president of V Ships told Lloyds List that the collective pressure seen in the Hebei Two campaign was needed to fight further cases of unfair criminalisation of seafarers. “Next time it happens, in whichever country, if all the shipping industry is aligned, we have a strong message to change certain values.”
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