According to a report by the news portal of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, the ship named Istra was stopped in Algeria after failing to pay a fuel bill.

The 11-strong crew of sailors form Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Georgia do not have a disembarkation permit, while the Slovenian owner Bogdan Glavina has not been responding to their calls.

Crew member Petar Perović has told the Croatian daily Glas Istre that the sailors have been living on pasta for 18 days and that they only have bread, water, tomatoes and a few food tins left.

The rtvslo website also cites Croatian broadcaster HRT in reporting that the Croatian Seamen's Union has been notified of the situation, but has so far received no official request to help the Croatian crew members return home.

The union's secretary general Predrag Brazzoduro said that the union had had troubles before with Glavina, who he said had been making suspicious deals with the crew and was not paying them regularly. Istra crew have unofficially not received their wages since January.

Croatian media have also reported that Euroshipping's other ship, Padna, has been waiting for a renewal of expired documents for several months. The ship's crew reportedly received their last pay in February.