This is Chief officer Mohammed Ayisha from Syria
I am chief officer of m/v Amman Mohammed I've been on board the ship since may 2017.
He's been effectively imprisoned by Egyptian authorities on this vessel in July 2017 - his vessel
the a/v Aman was arrested by Egyptian authorities due to expired safety equipment and certificates
and the local court determined Mohammed was responsible for the vessel being the chief officer
he signed a form which authorities say means he agreed he was responsible however Mohammed
says he signed it without really knowing what the form meant- For 2 years he was detained on board
with other members of the crew so for 2 years he was on board this vessel arrested just outside the
Suez Canal -the entrance- the northbound entrance of the Suez Canal but by 2019
all of the other crew had left and he remained alone on board -the vessels owners based in Bahrain
named "Tylos Shipping and Marine Services" said they tried to help Mohammed but
because he'd signed this paperwork there was nothing they could do.
They said they were experiencing financial difficulties and that's why they never paid
to have the things resolved on the ship so the ship could leave.
They also stopped paying him and because the Captain was Egyptian, he effectively abandoned his
own crew and left the vessel and left Mohammed on his own - what is life like on your ship?... Life lis ike
if you're stuck in solidarity prison, solidity metal prison ,now going on 4 years, you can see
some rodents sometimes, you can see a lot of bugs like flies and mosquitoes. - 2018 his mother passed
away, he was still stuck on he said that was a low point and he even considered ending his own life!
he said it's like a grave at night he told the BBD, who reported on this story
it was like being in a coffin - the night it's like a grave, you can't see anything, you can't
hear anything so this story came out a couple of weeks ago and the reason why I didn't report on
that initially is because I wanted to try and help Mohammed so I contacted the BBC reporter
Paul Adams who originally wrote this story and he was communicating with him for a few weeks
so a couple of things i did i first of all i asked him is there anything i can do
to help? could we get that money to him so we all get supplies to him - In the story it says
that he had to swim ashore every couple of days 2 to 3 days so you have to swim ashore so
he could charge his phone and buy provisions so I thought well maybe we can get him a
a solar-powered charger for his phone and that way at least he'll always have power on his phone
but Paul Adams the BBC journalist he actually contacted Mohammed and asked him if we wanted
our help - the vessel was initially at anchorage and obviously when it was first
arrested it would have had fuel on board so they could run generators and stuff like that
but as in by 2019 the fuel had run out and the most of the crew had left and he was on his own
except for a security guard - occasionally that he would see -in 2020 the vessel actually
broke from its anchorage in in the storm and then ran aground about 300 meters off
the actual coastline of this town Mohammed said it was terrifying at the time because he's
completely powerless to do anything about it but he said he felt like it was an act of god because
after it ran aground it meant that he could now go ashore swim ashore to get supplies because
previously he'd been much further out at anchor so Mohammed actually declined the offer to help.
Clearly a very proud man but what he did say to the reporter is that he felt very good
for him to know that people cared enough to want to help him so anyway i communicated with the BBC
reporter for a while now for about the last week trying to get any updates and he finally told me
yesterday that Mohammed Aisha is now on his way home to Syria after almost 4 years onboard
this vessel -this incredible story apparently it's not an isolated story and apparently there
are hundreds of vessels across the world right now that have been abandoned by their owners
in similar situations and the crew have been left to fend for themselves anyway as
far as Mohammed Aisha goes you'd think that after an ordeal like this they would never want to set
foot on a vessel again but actually that's not the case he said once as soon as he catches up
with his family and takes some time at home he plans to go back to sea he said he loves working
at sea and that's his career he said he intends to pick up where he left off it's quite incredible
i'm not sure i would do the same if i was left on a vessel for 4 years
anyway guys at least we've got a good ending to this story right so let me know what you
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for plenty more videos like this and thanks very much for watching, see you. bye