THE Indonesian workers “stranded” in Newport Port since March due to their shipowner’s unpaid debts will fly home on Thursday.

Thirteen men, including two from the Phillipines and Romania, have not been paid in four months and are allegedly owed $250,000.

They have lived onboard Italian cargo vessel the Sunflower E since their bankrupt ship was seized on March 10, with no money and dwindling supplies of toiletries including toothpaste, deodorant and shaving foam although authorities provided food and water.

But earlier today the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said they had moved forward in making sure the workers will get their wages, as the Italian liquidators will allow them to seek a court judgment. This means they could be paid when the ship is sold.

Ken Fleming, UK and Ireland coordinator from the ITF, said: “The talking is over - we will be pursuing this as aggressively as we can, pushing for the quick sale of the vessel.

“The workers will be going home, penniless.”

The Italian captain of the ship went home soon after the ship was stopped, along with three other workers who paid their own way, but the remaining crew stayed in the hope of retrieving the money owed them.

Ship insurance will cover travel costs for the remaining men, who are mostly in their early 30s.

Mr Fleming said: “Conditions have been indescribable. All these people have is what is on their backs. When there is a commercial war going on, nobody is considering the plight of the crew members or their families.

“They were completely cut off. One man’s daughter missed her place in college because he wasn’t there to pay her fee. Even if he had been there he wouldn’t have had the money. It’s terrible.”

The ship workers are relieved to finally he going home, he added: “They are very brave men. They will have to wait now - and by the time they get paid they may simply have to pay back the moneylenders they borrowed from to keep their homes.”

Speaking to the Argus on Monday, they said they had no hot water and their fridge had broken. One crew member said that his mother had recently died and he had been denied the chance to go home, while another had a nine month contract but had already been on the ship for more than a year, and others hadn’t spoken to their families back home in months.

Doris Agus, an engineer on the ship said: “They only care about the vessel, they don’t care about us.”

Newport West MP Paul Flynn raised the plight of the ship workers in parliament on Monday when he tabled an Early Day Motion (written statement) calling on the government to contact Italy to make sure the workers are paid and supported in travelling home to their families.