Khan Aamir
Seafarers (also called the Merchant Mariners or Sailors) are the floating population on board over various types of ships, transporting all kinds of cargoes like fuel, food, medicines and various other commodities from one country to the other. Almost 90 percent of the world trade today is carried out by ships. The crew working on these cargo ships have work contracts of about 4-9 months depending upon their respective ranks, and then they stay home for almost half of that period to rejuvenate themselves and spend time with their families.
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Seafaring is considered to be one of the most dangerous professions in the world, for the perils that seas pose to them. Crew members work almost 10 hours a day, for seven days a week. Working onboard a ship, in rough conditions at sea is quite challenging. The productivity tends to reduce, with the stretched work overs and overkill might result in fatal marine accidents as well. Thus relieving the crew members onboard is vital to keep these ships running smoothly. Also under Maritime Labour Convention, seafarers have the right to return home at the end of their contract at no cost to themselves.
In the times of COVID-19, as most of the countries have halted the crew transfers, those onboard are having a tough time to cope up. An estimated 150,000 crew members with expired work contracts have been forced to work onboard these commercial ships worldwide to keep the supply of essential cargoes intact and meet the demands of various countries that have closed their borders yet wanting fuel, food and supplies.
Akin to wanting the mail but not the mailman, countries have insisted on keeping the global shipping lines open while keeping seafarers out. Maritime organizations have lobbied governments to exempt crew members from travel bans, but to no avail. Most of the seafaring community consists of the Filipinos, Chinese, Indians, Indonesians, Ukrainians, Polish and the Russians. As the airlines are grounded in most of these countries, it becomes impossible for the seafarers to get home even if they are signed off from their ships in the ports allowing crew changes.
Some Shipping Companies say that though they are sympathetic to their sea staff, but it is in their own interest to be at sea when the Corona Virus is still dangerously spreading in the world. They add that suspension of crew changes protects the seafarers as this lessens the number of social interactions they need to have. In many of the ports in the world, ships are now cleared on arrival by immigration authorities online, thus maintaining the social distancing as far as practicable. The International Trade Workers Federation, which represents seafarers, said that they can not object to the mandatory contract extensions of seafarers in the face of national laws closing borders.
The seafarers, however, do not seem to buy these statements as many of them have already been onboard for almost a year now and they feel it is always better to stay with your families during the pandemic than be at sea for the extended periods. No Shipping company has yet added COVID-19 Insurance death covering its seafarers. Many Shipping Companies are not even paying any Contract Extension Bonuses to the crew members who are making sure they keep the ships running.
No Viral disease has a cure and even if hurried upon, arrival of the vaccine for COVID-19 might take more than a year, crew members can’t be kept onboard for years, this will affect them mentally, and thus we need to live with this situation. It is not going away too soon.
Governments need to take care of their own citizens. A proper plan has to be carried out by the Shipping Companies, Governments and Associations representing seafarers to make sure the people responsible for keeping the global trade running are not made the scapegoats of the pandemic. Quarterly Crew change plan should be made without any adjustments to postpone, Governments can open the airports for the flights carrying crew members and hotels, near the airports, can be booked by the shipping companies to quarantine the incoming crew members in their respective countries.
Life at sea is already tough, let’s not make it even tougher for the mariners who work to keep. UK has categorised seafaring as essential service, which promotes seafarer welfare in trying times such as the current corona virus outbreak.
A wider thought that needs a thought is, “What if, one fine day, these helpless mariners decide they won’t run these ships anymore and won’t deliver any cargoes to the countries not allowing them to repatriate, what will happen to this world?”
Khan Aamir is a second officer with Merchant Navy who has been working in Pacific International Lines(PIL)- a Singapore based company. He hails from the Sopore area of North Kashmir.