Iranian authorities have released one of the 18 Filipino seafarers on board the Marshall Islands-flagged St. Nikolas that they seized last month, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Eduardo de Vega said in a public briefing that the Filipino was able to return to his family earlier this month.

“He was an ordinary seaman. He returned home on 4 February,” De Vega told Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.

The seaman returned to the Philippines after he rejected the doubled salary his manpower agency offered him.

Citing an Iranian court document, De Vega said the Filipino seamen on board the seized ship were being treated properly.

“In other words, they are not being treated as hostages. They are still viewed as employees of their agency, while the Iranian court has yet to decide on the tanker,” he said.

He likewise noted that the employment contracts of 10 of the Filipinos were set to expire within the month.

“When their contracts expire, they can go home,” he said. “What we are doing now is to make sure that they have substitutes.”

“That is needed according to international rules. They need to have a substitute for them,” he said.

Earlier this year, Iran seized the oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in “retaliation” for the “theft” of its oil from the same tanker last year by the United States.

The United States condemned what it called an “unlawful seizure” and demanded that Iran “immediately release the ship and its crew.”