The shocking exploitation of seafarers during the current epidemic has been brought into sharp focus by news emanating from the Arab World.
According to the International Transport Workers’ Federation, shipowners are increasingly abandoning their vessels and crew – and a major factor is crew change, says Mohamed Arrachedi, the ITF’s Arab World and Iran network coordinator. “Governments’ Covid-19 border restrictions and the cost of international flights mean that ever more employers are cutting their losses and abandoning their obligations towards seafarers – often folding their business with seafarers still on board and thousands of dollars out of pocket.”
According to the ITF, unions have helped recover more than USD$1.7 million in wages owed to seafarers.
“Cases of abandonment and unpaid wages are definitely on the rise across the world, and in this region in particular. We’re also seeing more employers withholding the wages they owe to seafarers – and seafarers are paying the price,” Arrachedi said.
“Typically shipowners will promise the crew the outstanding wages, as well as speedy repatriation if the crew’s contracts are over. They keep promising. And then, one day, a shipowner or their agent will stop responding to the crew’s messages.
“Employers can often vanish without a trace. Gone.”
And many seafarers are often concerned about the consequences of arguing with their employers over matters like pay – even if they suspect or know that they are being cheated.
There are two reasons why seafarers feel intimidated.
Firstly, ‘blacklisting’, or the banning of seafarers by shipowners and their recruiting agents from future employment opportunities, is still thought to be widespread in the industry.
“Seafarers are worried that if they speak up, they won’t get another contract,” says Arrachedi.
The second is that shipowners are seafarers’ tickets home. Under the Maritime Labour Convention, an employer pays for the cost of getting seafarers to and from ships. Seafarers worry that an angered shipowner could defer or deny them repatriation as punishment for raising concern over unpaid wages.
“To make matters worse, right now there are up to 400 000 seafarers trapped working aboard cargo vessels and unable to go home. Often, their slim chances of overcoming government Covid border restrictions rely on the determination of their employers to navigate obstructive bureaucracy and put seafarers on record-high-priced flights.
For many seafarers tired after 12, 14 or 18 months at sea and desperate to get home, making an enemy of their employer is a risk they are not willing to take.