Bulgaria Welcomes Home 8 Sailors Released by Somali Pirates

The Asian Glory cargo ship with 8 Bulgarian crew onboard, which was released by the Somali pirates Friday. Photo by vesseltracking.com

The eight Bulgarian sailors from the “Asian Glory” ship, who were released recently by the Somali pirates, arrived in the city of Varna on Thursday.

The eight men, who spent more than 5 months in captivity together with the other crew members of the UK-operated cargo ship, arrived with a flight from London after they were initially taken to Oman after their release Friday.

On Wednesday, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said the sailors were in good physical condition.

"Asian Glory" was hijacked on January 1, 2010, almost 1 000 km off the coast of Somalia, with 10 Ukrainians, 8 Bulgarians, 5 Indians, and 2 Romanians on board. It was loaded with 2 405 cars from South Korean shipped from Singapore to Saudi Arabia.

After the release of the eight Bulgarian sailors from “Asian Glory,” and the recent release of the St. James Park tanker, where 5 Bulgarians were held in captivity for more than four months, only the 15-member, all Bulgarian crew of the Bulgarian-flagged ship MV Panega remain in the hands of the Somali pirates.

Reports of EUNAVFOR Somalia over the past few months said the pirates might have used the Asian Glory as a mother ship for hijacking operations because the vessel was spotted several times in the open seas off the Somali coast.

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