Issue 248 Jul/Aug 2017
MtS targets justice and welfare in UAE
Abandoned and ‘virtually imprisoned’
Enhanced Mission team to tackle human rights abuses against seafarers by corrupt manning agencies and shipowners THE Mission to Seafarers in the United Arab Emirates is refocusing on combating human rights abuses against seafarers by unscrupulous manning agencies and shipowners. In the last two years, the Dubaibased team has dealt with 298 vessels which had significant welfare issues involving more than 1,600 seafarers. The number of cases has increased so much that the current justice and welfare team can no longer meet the demand for their support. “In any downturn, it is the seafarers who suffer the most,” says the Revd Dr Paul Burt, the Mission’s regional director for the Gulf & South Asia and senior chaplain in the UAE. “We receive around three new cases each week and know of several ships within our area whose crews
A larger justice team will contnue to battle human rights abuses against seafarers
are facing exceptionally hard circumstances, and for whom we are currently unable to offer support. “By increasing our justice team we will be able to help more seafarers in need – many of whom are often left without salary, food and water for months on end.” As a result of the changing
needs of seafarers, the Mission will retire its launch, Flying Angel, but pastoral visits to vessels at anchor will still be available on request. The current justice team of three full-time chaplains will be enhanced by a fourth, operating from Abu Dhabi, and a qualified welfare worker serving other ports.
IN A recent justice and welfare case handled by The Mission to Seafarers’ team in the UAE, two Filipino seafarers were abandoned on an anti-piracy vessel after a payment dispute and were left to fend for themselves. Most of the time they had no food or water and their virtual imprisonment on the vessel lasted 31 months. The Mission’s welfare officers supported them with regular deliveries of essential supplies and counselling. They also worked as their advocates, negotiating with all the disputing parties on their behalf, and paid for the men to retrain and renew their certificates while still on board. Eventually the Mission was able to broker a deal whereby the men were allowed to go home in 2016 with a promise that when the vessel was sold they would get their salaries.
ITF calls to halt tuna transshipment sea without oversight and that this unregulated situation allows illegal fishing, human trafficking, extreme
labour abuses, debt bondage, serious injuries, safety violations, and even murder to happen. Credit: Greenpeace
THE International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is calling for a moratorium on high seas transshipment by tuna long-line vessels in the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea until companies implement what the ITF describes as “fair labour standards throughout their supply chains to protect fishers and seafarers”. Transshipment is the process whereby fishing vessels transfer their catch, supplies, and in some cases fishers, on the high seas, generally in international waters, far from land and any national or international inspectors or law enforcement officials. The ITF says this practice allows fishing vessels to spend months or even years at
The ITF claims transshipment leads to illegal fishing, safety violations and even murder
The ITF fisheries section chair and Norwegian Seafarers’ Union president, Johnny Hansen, said: “Fishers of all nationalities deserve to have basic safety and health protections, to work in an environment free from physical or mental abuse, and have the right to organise/freely associate to protect themselves. Too often, fishers are beaten or even killed for asserting their rights, and it’s time for us to take action against transshipment to protect everyone on the high seas.” To find a seafarers’ centre near you and for more information about the Mission’s services visit www.missiontoseafarers.org