Cold and fed up, 11 sailors from Caribbean and South America are stuck in Trois-Rivières, Que.

Eleven Caribbean and South American sailors are stuck at the port in Trois-Rivières, Que., aboard three cramped tugboats that were destined for export in October.

For three months the tugboats have been sitting idle in the port, detained by Transport Canada for failing to meet various laws and international maritime conventions necessary for an international voyage. 

Once Canadian-owned and Canadian-flagged vessels, they were sold to B.K. Marine, a Guyanese company, according to Vince Giannopoulos, the vice-president of the St. Lawrence and East Coast Seafarers' International Union of Canada.

With the new owners hoping to bring the boats back to Guyana for tug work and shipping in South America and the Caribbean, Giannopoulos says the boats needed to undergo many "regulation-based changes." 

But months ago, Giannopoulos was contacted by seafarers who raised concerns about their living and working conditions aboard the vessels — reporting that they were paid below what they were initially promised and not given contracts.

Mark Wong worked on one ship as an engineer for months without a contract. He arrived in Canada in June 2022, expecting he would be en route shortly.

But in October, he was among those who got stuck in Trois-Rivières.

"They promised it very early when we got in 'you're gonna get a contract, you're gonna get a contract.' And you know we don't fight nobody. We're just quiet people," said Wong.

Wong says he only received the contract in December, shortly before he flew back home to Guyana on Dec. 24 in the sweatshirt and jeans he arrived in many months before.

"As a seaman, I just adjust myself to any condition … [But] the winter was coming in … It's kind of a relief that [I'm] out of the cold," said Wong. 

Even though employers are legally required to offer contracts in writing in Canada, Giannopoulos says Wong's situation was common among workers.

"A lot of the crew are pretty disappointed … [They] were told things back home and when they got here to the vessels, those things weren't necessarily true," said Giannopoulos.

He said many of the crew members received only a third of what they were initially promised as pay.

"Imagine yourself taking a job in a foreign country and you get there and nothing is what you've expected. You know it can be really tough to deal with that kind of thing," said Giannopoulos.