‘Bombs fell near ship’: Stranded sailor back home | page 1A 28-year-old merchant sailor from Mira Bhayandar, Rex Perreira, who left for Dubai in Oct, got stuck in the war zone after he was, without a formal contract, directed to Iraq. “Bombs fell near and around the ship, causing vibrations,” he said a day after returning home, narrating how he was cut off from communication, and surrounded by the distant thud of bombs. “The captain abandoned the ship. We were 4 four Indians left in charge,” he said. Was stuck on vessel for over one month as bombs fell nearby: Sailor | page 3Mumbai: For more than a month, Rex Perreira (28), a merchant sailor from Mira Bhayandar, lived through a nightmare at sea – stranded without documents, cut off from communication, and surrounded by the distant thud of bombs. “The bombs fell near and around the ship, causing vibrations across it. One landed barely 5 km away,” Perreira said a day after returning to Mumbai on Tuesday.What began as a routine assignment in Dubai in Oct 2025 quickly changed into something else. Sent by an agent for internal work aboard a supply vessel, Diva, Perreira said he was moved to Sharjah in weeks and, without a formal contract, directed onward to Iraq. “The moment we reached the border, the captain abandoned the ship. We were just four Indians left in charge,” he said.In a near-fatal incident before the war started, just off Basra port, Perreira said the ship’s engine room, where he’d been posted despite assurances of a steering role, exploded due to a mechanical error. “I was told I’d be given steering duty but was made to work in the engine room. The engine had overheated, and we warned deck officers not to restart it. They tried many times anyway. When they tried again without informing us, it exploded. I sustained minor burns, and the engine room was destroyed,” he said.The vessel itself, he added, was in a dire state. “It was practically a scrap ship – no WiFi, no reliable generators, engine failures, no supplies. We were hungry for a couple of days. We had to cook using diesel and gas on an oil tanker, which is risky,” he said. With no communication except fleeting cellular signals and a patchy VHF radio, even reaching authorities was hard.By Feb 17, the vessel had reached Basra port in Iraq, where the crew found themselves stranded without passports or continuous discharge certificates, essential for any sailor. “We couldn’t disembark even if we wanted to. We had no documents, no contract, nothing to prove why we were there,” he said.Between March 2 and April 5, during the war, Pereira stayed stuck at Basra port even as tensions escalated. “March 9, 10 and 11 were the most intense, with continuous explosions,” he said. “There were many ships stranded alongside us, and each will have 2-3 Indians working on it.”Appeals to the Indian embassy initially yielded little due to lack of documentation. “We kept calling, requesting assistance, but without papers, there was little they could do,” Perreira said. It was only after sustained efforts that emergency letters were issued, enabling visas for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Back home, each passing hour without contact deepened anxiety. “If we didn’t hear from him every hour, we’d start worrying,” said his father, Chester Perreira, a retired shipbuilder who served over four decades with the defence ministry.The escape was just as arduous. After finally receiving his documents on April 1, Perreira travelled by road towards the Safwan border. With no official transport available, he relied on the kindness of strangers. “Some Indians near the border helped me onto a bus to Saudi,” he said. From there, a 17-hour journey to Riyadh followed, before he could board a flight home. “I landed in Mumbai at 3 pm Tuesday,” he said. A source from the directorate general of shipping told TOI that the licence of the Goa-based shipping agency, Ouvert Marine Solutions Pvt Ltd, which had hired Perreira, has since been suspended.Calling the episode symptomatic of a larger problem, Manoj Yadav, general secretary of Forward Seamen’s Union of India, said, “These agents who try to recruit sailors run an interconnected, highly advanced racket.” He added 42 vessels carrying Indian sailors remain stuck at Iranian ports. (Inputs by V Narayan)
