Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) revealed on Tuesday that seventeen Filipino sailors miraculously survived an armed attack allegedly carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a Liberia-flagged vessel while sailing through the Red Sea.
Hans Leo Cacdac Jr., Secretary of the DMW, stated that the cargo ship MV Magic Seas was sailing approximately 51 nautical miles southwest of Al-Hudaidah, Yemen, on July 6 when it was attacked by small boats carrying men armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
Fortunately, the ship’s onboard security team—comprised of four armed personnel—repelled the assault by returning fire.
The DMW reported that this forced the 19-member crew—including 17 Filipinos, a Romanian captain, and a Vietnamese chief engineer—to abandon ship after it began taking on water. The crew was later rescued by a passing container ship identified as “Swvin Prism.”
The Djibouti immigration and customs authorities (Cacdac) confirmed that all 17 Filipino sailors had been rescued and were safely accommodated at a hotel in Djibouti, East Africa, along with the rest of the ship’s crew.
Cacdac added: “The department remains in close coordination with relevant government agencies and the licensed manning agency (LMA) to ensure the safe and immediate repatriation of the affected Filipino sailors.”
He also assured the families of the Filipino seafarers that assistance will be provided to help them rebuild their lives following this traumatic incident.
