March 1, 2022
MANILA — Another vessel with 21 Filipino seafarers on board was hit by a missile strike in the Black Sea off Ukraine’s port city of Odessa, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.
One Filipino crew member “fell upon impact and sustained a non-life-threatening injury,” according to the DFA, the rest of the Filipino crew are safe.
The vessel is a Japanese-owned and Panamanian-flagged grain bulk carrier called M/V Nomura Queen, the DFA said in a statement. It was “hit by a missile strike in the Black Sea off Odessa, and bore damage to its stern,” it added.
Citing the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, the DFA said the vessel is currently navigating towards Istanbul for repairs.
“The Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Osaka (POLO-Osaka) are in touch with Nissen Kaiun, the owner of the ship, to monitor the condition of the seafarers,” the agency also said.
On Sunday, the DFA reported that a Turkish-owned commercial cargo ship was damaged by a bomb off the coast of Odessa last February 24.
The DFA said that the vessel has 11 Filipino crew members aboard, and all of them are marked safe.
The DFA said teams from the Philippine Embassy in Ankara and the Philippine Consulate General in Istanbul personally spoke with the Filipino seafarers when their vessel arrived at the Yalova Sefine Shipyard in Yalova, south of Istanbul, on February 25.
“The Philippine Embassy in Ankara and Consulate General in Istanbul stand ready to assist the Filipino seafarers upon their disembarkation in Istanbul, and repatriate them should they decide to go home to the Philippines,” it said.