Troubled Seafarers in Troubled Seas
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There are approximately 1.5 million seafarers worldwide who come mostly from underdeveloped countries like the Philippines, which supplies 25% of the world's seafarers. Seafarers do demanding work but receive low salaries while making up 90% of worldwide trade. International organizations are working to improve labor conditions for seafarers and enforce their rights through conventions that address substandard ships and flags of convenience that exploit workers.
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Troubled Seafarers in Troubled Seas
- 1. TroubledTroubled Seafarers inSeafarers in Troubled SeasTroubled Seas
- 2. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), there are at present about 1,500,000 seafarers of various nationalities on board vessels around the world.
- 3. A majority of these seafarers come from underdeveloped or developing countries.
- 4. The Philippines alone supplies about 25% of the world’s seafarers. This makes the Philippines the number one supplier of seafarers in the world.
- 5. 90% of world trade is carried through shipping.
- 11. While on board the ship, the seafarer has to contend himself with receiving a very low salary with usually extraordinarily demanding work environment.
- 20. FOCs: Flags of Convenience
- 23. A comprehensive set of basic maritime labour principles & rights & ILO fundamental rights Convention spells out in one place & clear language seafarers’ basic employment rights
- 24. Seafarers better informed of their rights and of remedies available Improved enforcement of minimum working & living conditions Right to make complaints with overall responsibility, for the purposes of this convention
- 25. Ratification ofRatification of the ILO MLC 2006:the ILO MLC 2006: promotion of thepromotion of the rights andrights and welfare of thewelfare of the seafarer.seafarer.
Editor's Notes
- According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), there are at present about One Million Five Hundred Thousand (1,500,000) seafarers of various nationalities on board vessels around the world.
- A majority of these seafarers come from underdeveloped or developing countries.
- The Philippines alone supplies more than Three Hundred Thirty Thousand (330,000) or about 25% of the world’s seafarers. This makes the Philippines the number one supplier of seafarers in the world.
- More than ninety percent (90%) of the world trade is carried through shipping.
- Hundreds of tonnes of goods and cargoes such as foods, fuel, chemicals, textiles, steel, cement and other construction materials, among others, are being transported through and by the use of ships that pass through the various sea lanes of the world.
- The significant role and contribution of the seafarers to world trade and the global economy have been officially recognized by the International Community through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) when it declared, for the first time, June 25 as the First International Day of Seafarers. We, in ISAC, welcome this declaration as it is but fitting and proper that the invaluable contribution of the seafarers be recognized and given the necessary attention due them.
- And this must be so. For the past several years and until the present, seafarers have been confronted with myriads of problems before, during and after shipboard employment. Exorbitant training fees and pre-employment medical examination charges would already confront the seafarer upon application for a job.
- . While on board the ship, the seafarer has to contend himself with receiving a very low salary with usually extraordinarily demanding work environment. Away from home and his family, the seafarer would experience severe loneliness as he faces the dangers of the seas both natural and man-made.
- Piracy in the Gulf of Aden in Somalia, the Red Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Horn of Africa, and the Malacca Straits, among others, has equally posted threats to the safety and lives of the seafarers.
- Piracy in Somalia, for the last three (3) years have taken the center stage when Somali pirates armed with sophisticated weapons such as AK-47 and Rocket Propelled Grenades (PRG) hijacked ocean-going vessels, even small boats and yachts passing through the Gulf of Aden.
- More than 30,000 vessels pass through the Gulf of Aden annually. Recently, Somali pirates have extended their range of attacks much farther from the coast of Somalia to off the Coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean. In 2010 alone, 4,185 seafarers were attacked by pirates while 1,090 were held hostage. Military solutions were advanced but the effect is merely to escalate the violence at the expense of the seafarer victims.
- During rescue operations such as those which happened when the French, the Korean and the U.S. navies made separate attempts to the rescue hostages from their pirated ships. In the rescue attempt made by the U.S. navy on hostages held on board the vessel “Quest”, four (4) Americans sailors were killed. In January 2001, a Filipino seafarer was shot and killed by pirates. On May 11, 2001, another Filipino seafarer on board the MT Sea King which was hijacked in Benin was recorded as the latest Filipino casualty killed on board. As of last month, 79 Filipino seafarers on board 9 vessels were still being held by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
- Long-term solutions such as the establishment of an effective central government in Somalia, economic viability and more employment opportunities for its people are seen as the only long term solution to stave off this malady.
- Aside from piracy, the problem about the use of Flag of Convenience (FOC) remains the biggest issue that seafarers and mariners face.
- . Substandard ships flying Flags of Convenience expose the world’s seafarers to greater risk, worsened by problems on the salary, health and safety of the mariners. Despite the fact that international unions and organizations of seafarers strongly campaign against the use of the FOC, the problem continues to linger—and it’s getting worse. Demands for safety standards, just and humane conditions of work have been the clamour of the seafarers. Even disability and death claims, and contract violations have become elusive to the seafarers. This is particularly true with vessels flying the “Flags of Convenience”. Shipowners register the vessels not in their country of residence but in other flag states where safety and work standards are at the minimum.
- Through the Flag of Convenience (FOC) systems, shipowners have effectively evaded the strict and stringent safety and labor standards of their country while securing operational and labor costs to their minimum under the Flag of Convenience. A majority of the world merchant ships do fly the flags of Panama, Bahamas, and Malta – countries which are known to be the leading “Flags of Convenience”.
- Flag of Convenience ships are mostly unseaworthy and prone to maritime disasters. Interestingly, the world’s worst peacetime sea disaster happened in the Philippines on December 20, 1987 which Dona Paz, a passenger ship, collided with a chemical tanker, MT Vector, which claimed more than 4,341 lives. This worst peacetime maritime accident became known as the Asia’s Titanic. The RMS Titanic was the British ship which sank in 1912 where 1,523 were left dead.
- In 2006, the ILO Maritime Labor Convention had been born to offer solutions to the problems besetting the world’s seafarers. Unfortunately, its effects remain on paper as many countries, including the Philippines, refuse to ratify, adopt and implement its provisions.
- This international maritime labor instrument could be the key for stricter imposition of labor standards, healthy and safe working environment for the seafarers.
- Inevitably, shipowners, manning agencies, and flag states under its regulatory capture delay the implementation of this pro-seafarer instrument. Not surprisingly, these are the same entities who are benefiting under the current rotten and corrupt system.
- The immediate ratification of the MLC 2006 shall create a maritime regime beneficial for both the owner of the capital and the giver of labor as there will be a push against substandard shipping and a more effective enforcement of labor standards that has been eroded under the Flag of Convenience (FOC) system. It can pave the way for a less exploitative and a more vibrant and strong shipping industry, that can withstand the worsening world economic turmoil.
- As the international seafaring community welcomes and celebrates June 25th as the First International Day for Seafarers, the men and women boarded on ships sailing the seven seas who are toiling hard for manning the engines and navigating the high seas of world trade also declare this day as the day for more intense struggle for the recognition of their rights and welfare as workers and as human beings. ISAC and its allies also declare, June 25th as the start of more intense campaign for the ratification of the MLC and other laws that intend to defend the rights and welfare of the men and women working at sea.
- ISAC and its allies also declare, June 25th as the start of more intense campaign against Flags of Convenience and for the immediate ratification of the ILO MLC 2006 and other laws that intend to defend the rights and welfare of the men and women working at sea.
- Thank you very much.