During the annual campaign, organised by the London-based International Federation of Workers (ITF), it was found that the crew members of the two Chinese ships were not aware of the wages given to them, and they were given some cash onboard as pocket money.

The crew said that their 'wages' were sent to the their families back in the country.

“We inspected two Chinese ships —MV Plenty Ocean and MV Pasckar — at Kandla on January 7 and 11 and were shocked to find that their all-Chinese crew did not know what their wages were,” said the senior labour trustee of the Kandla Port Trust, Manohar Bellani, who is also the ITF's representative at the port.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Bellani said, “The crew refused to divulge anything. It was only after they were told that they would not be allowed to leave the port that the crew relented and agreed to provide the required information in English on their next trip to Kandla. They had all the documents in Chinese even though the international conventions state that such papers must be accompanied by their English version.”

He said that since there were no workers' unions in China, the crew members were hesitant to speak.

However, he managed to talk to a few and found that they were ignorant of their actual wages.

The ITF has set norms for payment of minimum wages and other service condition for seafarers the world over as per the guidelines laid by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The purpose of the annual campaign is to ensure that the ship owners do not exploit their crew, particularly on the issue of wages.

A total of eight ships were inspected during the five-day long campaign, of which three failed to meet the international requirements.

The work agreement of crew of the vessel, Pacific Logger, had expired long back and was not renewed.