Seven South Korean sailors on board a detained cargo vessel off India’s Chennai Port will likely return as early as next week.

An official at the South Korean Embassy in India on Friday said that the ship’s owner and a sailor employment agency in Busan held a meeting last week and agreed to send the seven South Koreans back home around Wednesday.

Currently, a total of 14 sailors - seven from South Korea and seven from Myanmar - are aboard the stranded freighter MV OMS Arena as the owner of the ship and the Indian owner of the goods on the vessel became mired in a court battle over cargo issues in February of last year. The OSM Arena was banned from leaving the port by the Calcutta High Court as the matter was not been resolved.

In February of last year, originally nine South Koreans and five Myanmareses were on board the vessel, but the nine South Koreans were all replaced later with the seven replacement South Korean sailors who are currently aboard the ship.