A dozen Turkish sailors are on their way home after being stranded on a ship docked in a Quebec city for the past six months.

The 12-man crew left Montreal's Trudeau airport on an Air Transat flight on Sunday afternoon, following a wage conflict over a dilapidated ship parked in the Quebec port city of Sorel-Tracy, located along the St. Lawrence River.

The sailors arrived in Sorel-Tracy -- about an hour northeast of Montreal -- in April to help repair the decaying Phoenix Sun cargo freighter.

However, they say they stopped receiving wages or food from the Canadian company that managed the ship in July.

The sailors say they remained in Canada, hoping to receive compensation for their weeks of work. But with colder weather coming, they have decided to return home to their struggling families.

"This is like a prison for us: We can go out and go shopping, but we're stuck here in that we have no salaries and our family is in a bad situation," Captain Semih Ozkan told CTV Montreal.

The men say their work was almost fully completed.

“We almost completely repaired the ship but we’re waiting for some spare parts,” said Ozkan. “They didn’t come.”

That’s when the people of Sorel-Tracy stepped in to raise $10,000 for the dozen men. The municipality also provided electricity and other amenities to the sailors at a cost of about $60,000, according to Sorel-Tracy Mayor Serge Peloquin.

Meanwhile, Air Transat provided the 12 men with free flights home to Istanbul, and the sailors departed on Sunday afternoon.

The Phoenix Sun bulk carrier is 186 metres long and was built in 1987. The ship has been docked in Sorel-Tracy since 2012.

The ship is registered in Panama, but it’s managed by a company in Ontario called Menpas Shipping and Trading Inc., which is based in Hamilton.

According to reports, the management company denies the sailors’ accusations of unpaid wages.

The Canadian Coast guard seized the ship, in hopes of that the company would pay the sailor’s wages and repatriation back home.

Peloquin said Sunday a $60,000 bill will be sent to Manpas Shiping for the cost of heating and storing the Phoenix Sun.

With files from CTV Montreal’s Kevin Gallagher