2 months on, TN seafarer yet to be traced: Wife

Family members of Arockia Bruno Fernando, the seafarer on Thursday appealed to the state and central governments to take speedy and effective steps to find him.

Fernando was on board a Bermuda ship, BW Nantes, on September 3 when it was passing through Indian Ocean, around 22 nautical milessouth of Sri Lanka.

Around 3 pm on that day, he had complained of sickness and had sought permission to take rest in his room.

A couple of hours later, when a colleague checked his room, Fernando was found missing. Even after a search for an hour inside the ship, Fernando could not be traced. The ship also sailed back on the route it came, but could not find the missing seafarer.

Following this, the Sri Lankan Navy was alerted about the missing crew and a search conducted by them also failed to trace Fernando. Even after a lapse of two months, the whereabouts of Arockia was yet to be known.

At this juncture, family of Fernando has appealed to the state and the Central governments to trace him. Speaking to DTNEXT, Yamini, wife of Fernando, said that the case of her husband missing continued to remain a mystery as none of the crew members had any idea about him.

Fernando had signed a nine months contract with the ship management and had boarded the vessel towards the end of July. The ship had visited the port of Saudi Arabia and was on its way to Singapore.

Fernando was looking after the stores and had worked for 45 days continuously.

The only suspicion was that hemight have fallen accidentally into the waters. But, Fernando had been a seafarer for more than 15 years, so chances of anything untoward was a remote possibility. Also, the waters in that route would always be busy with boats moving around in the region. So, even if he had fallen into the sea, fishermen would have noticed him, she said.

In the past two months, petitions were submitted to the Thoothukudi district administration and the CM’s special cell, but no action had been initiated so far, she said and added that the issue was not taken to the knowledge of Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister. She demanded the external affairs minister’s intervention for the safe return of her husband.