Twenty-three sailors on board bulk cargo vessel MV Jag Anand, which has been anchored near Jingtang port in China’s Hebei province since June 13, 2020, will return to India next week, Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday.

The minister tweeted that the ship will reach Japan’s Chiba Port on January 14, where there will be a crew change. “After following due procedure related to Covid protocols, they will fly back to India,” he said.

Mandaviya praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the seafarers have been stuck aboard the ship in China for several months now. “This could only happen due to strong leadership of Narendra Modi,” he said. “I deeply appreciate the humanitarian approach of the Great Eastern Shipping Company towards the seafarers and standing by them in this crucial time!”

However, it is not clear when 16 other sailors on board MV Anastasia will return to India. The ship has been off the port of Caofeidian, also in China’s Hebei, since September 20.

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Anurag Srivastava, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, had last week said that the Indian Embassy in Beijing was in close touch with the Chinese authorities in Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin. He had asked China to provide “urgent, practical and time-bound” assistance to the sailors.

His statement came hours after the National Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of the condition of the stranded sailors and asked the government “to ensure immediate relief”. It said lack of rescue amounts to violation of human rights.

The foreign ministry said that Beijing has not allowed the vessels to change crew members and stopped them from disembarking due to coronavirus restrictions. In December, China had said that the real reason for two Indian ships being stranded in Chinese waters was that the freight forwarder did not want to adjust plans for the sake of commercial interests.