PESHAWAR: Three sailors from the crew of 17 Pakistanis stranded on Egypt’s Suez Canal returned home on Thursday. The workers reported that the Egyptian government had confiscated their passports and had left them stranded on the ship for the past three months .A few weeks earlier, four among the crew had returned to Pakistan after intervention by diplomatic authorities. Those who returned on Thursday were identified as Ikaramullah, Faridoon and Najeebullah. They landed at Peshawar’s Bacha Khan Airport early morning. Faridoon Khan, a resident of Mardan, said that 10 Pakistani nationals were still stranded and going through a very difficult time.”They have no facilities,” he said. Faridoon appreciated the role of the Pakistani embassy in Egypt but requested that further arrangements be made for the release of the other stranded Pakistani citizens. He appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and philanthropists to play their role in helping the remaining sailors. Najeebullah, a resident of Swat, reported that those stranded had not been paid their due salaries, with a case on the matter filed in a Swiss court having not been accepted. He added that his health had deteriorated to the extent that he had been admitted to a local hospital in Bahrain, along with other sailors. “Upon the captain’s instructions, we were allowed to travel to Pakistan and the embassy arranged all the facilities for the journey”, he said. The workers had left Karachi on August 8 and reached Kuwait where they boarded a ship and sailed to Egypt. They had subsequently been stranded since October 14. Chief Officer Jameel Jangian, one of those stranded on the ship, reported on social media that the shipping corporation did not pay the Egyptian government to process their travel documents, due to which their passports had been confiscated. He added, “We are not allowed to anchor the ship and go on shore for anything.” The workers were stuck on the ship anchored in the sea, away from the seashore and were running out of food and other supplies for daily use.