Eleven Indian sailors who were rescued by Saudi Coast Guard and Saudi Aramco from a burning cargo boat are set to return home on Saturday night.

“The 11 Indian sailors rescued by Saudi authorities are traveling to Mumbai by Jet Airways on Friday night, and as per directives from Deputy Chief of Mission Sibi George, the Indian Embassy not only issued them duplicate passports within couple of days but also bore the travel expense,” Shamsudheen Chettippadi, Indian social worker who met the sailors and arranged their travel, told Arab News.

Hailing the efforts of the Saudi Coast Guard and the Indian Embassy official, the captain of the boat Salim Karim Sanghar, who hails from Jamnagar in Gujarat, told Arab News by phone: “In such cases where sailors are stranded in other countries, it takes a long time and the sailors have to go through the ordeal. However, our experience in the Kingdom has been different with the Saudi Coast Guard authorities and Indian Embassy acting swiftly to repatriate us back home. We can’t believe this.”

He said the Saudi Aramco sailors gave them their own clothes after rescuing them from the high seas after they jumped from the burning boat.

Cargo boat Ghazaz with a capacity to carry 1000 metric tons departed with some 800 goats from Kashap port in Oman on Monday for Kuwait, but caught fire midway in Saudi waters near Jubail.

Saudi Coastal Guards came to the sailors’ rescue and shifted them to Jubail on Wednesday. Ten of the sailors come from Jamnagar in Gujarat while one comes from Kerala.