A family appealed for answers as to how their son died on board a shipping tanker, anchored off Khor Fakkan, days before he was expected to arrive home in India.
Suresh Shri issued an emotional plea to seafarers' charities after his son, Bhupendra, 23, an ordinary seaman, was found dead by crewmates in the boiler room of the Mt Sea Princess on Thursday, January 28.
Police who boarded the vessel are treating the case as a suspected suicide.
Special permission, which has since been granted, was needed from local authorities to bring the body ashore because the death occurred outside territorial waters.
The tanker with 13 crew on board was headed from Sharjah to ship-breakers at Alang, in Gujarat, India, where it was to be dismantled and sold for scrap, when Bhupendra died.
My son is not with us today, but we don't want any other seafarer's life to be lost again
Mr Shri received a call from the ship’s crew at 10.30am on Saturday, January 30, to notify him of his son's death, two days after the body was found.
“That call has devastated our lives,” said Mr Shri, who appealed for assistance from UAE authorities to repatriate the body of his son to the family home in Uttar Pradesh.
"To this minute, we are unable to believe this has happened," Mr Shri said.
“I don’t know what happened to Bhupendra. There was no reason for him to end his life.
“My wife is totally broken, I can’t see her in this condition. We want a thorough investigation to be done."
Crew on board the 100-metre tanker that left Sharjah for Khor Fakkan on January 26 are being offered pastoral care by the Mission to Seafarers charity.
The Consulate General of India in Dubai received permission to bring the body ashore so it could be placed in forensic containment before being repatriated.
Mr Shri said the recruitment agent that employed Bhupendra and the shipping company that managed the Mt Sea Princess took two days to confirm his son's death.
"I immediately called the manning agent in Mohali to find out the truth, but the phone was continually switched off," Mr Shri said.
“They did not have the heart to call us. I don’t know how they can be so cruel.
“We want to see our son as early as possible. We have lost everything.
"My son is not with us today, but we don't want any other seafarer's life to be lost. We don't want any other families to suffer."
The ship's captain, Nirmal Singh Brar, and 11 other men remain onboard the Mt Sea Princess, waiting at the alpha anchorage at Khor Fakkan for permission to leave for India.
It is one of 30 ships anchored off Khor Fakkan, one of the region's largest deep sea container terminals.
“I have finished my contract and will sign off when I get home,” said Capt Singh Brar.
“The police have taken a statement from all the crew as to what happened.
“Now the investigation has been done, our priority is the repatriation of the body.
“Bhupendra was a nice, polite young man, very obedient and was no problem at all with anyone.
“We were shocked and some of the crew panicked. It is very sad for all of us.”
The ship is owned by Global Tankers Pvt of India, and operated in the UAE by Prime Tankers.
The managing director of Prime Tankers, Jugwinder Singh Brar, said the company’s representatives had been in regular contact with the family since the death was reported.
Data published by maritime insurance providers, the P&I Club, showed suicide rates among seafarers have tripled since 2014, from 4.4 per cent to 15 per cent, with 26 per cent of merchant sailors displaying signs of depression.
To manage cases of poor mental health, Christian charity the Sailors’ Society established a 24-hour confidential helpline for officers, crew and their families.
It includes crisis response assistance and counselling through various channels such as email and WhatsApp and other social media chat platforms.
Appointments can also be made with counsellors at ports seafarers will visit during their contract.
“This is a young life tragically lost and which should have never happened,” said David Hammond of UK shipping charity Human Rights At Sea, which is supporting the family.
“Lessons must be identified, learnt and transparently highlighted.”
Seafarers and their family members can contact shipping company Tristar's dedicated helpline by calling 001-989-3128181 or the Sailors' Society's instant chat via wellnessatsea.org.
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Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Favourite things
Luxury: Enjoys window shopping for high-end bags and jewellery
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University: The only person in her family to go to college, Jiang secured a bachelor’s degree in business management in China
Masters: Studying part-time for a master’s degree in international business marketing in Dubai
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Community work: Member of the Chinese Business Women’s Association of the UAE to encourage other women entrepreneurs
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What sanctions would be reimposed?
Under ‘snapback’, measures imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council in six resolutions would be restored, including:
- An arms embargo
- A ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing
- A ban on launches and other activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missile technology transfer and technical assistance
- A targeted global asset freeze and travel ban on Iranian individuals and entities
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
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