According to foreign media reports, ten Syrian seafarers who had been trapped on an abandoned vessel for five months were flown home from Cyprus with all their wages, thanks to the efforts of a union inspector.
Christiana Efstratiou, a Cyprus-based inspector for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), who qualified only 18 months ago, had previously secured acceptable wage levels for the Syrian crew. She later played a key role in securing the seafarers’ wages and arranging their repatriation when the vessel was abandoned.
On the morning of October 8, the court issued an order for the seafarers to be paid, just as ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton told delegates at a Cyprus shipping conference that the number of abandoned seafarers has increased to around 300 this year.
“This is partly due to issues with the definition of ‘abandonment’,” he said, adding that there is a need to find new ways to protect seafarers.
In the case of the 3,700 dwt general cargo ship, built in 1992, the vessel was owned by Mar Marine Shipping LLC of Istanbul, Turkey, and managed by Haykal Ship Management.
At the time, the ship was anchored off the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, before proceeding to the port of Vasiliko, Cyprus. It was alleged that the vessel damaged a telecommunications cable there and was subsequently detained. As the vessel was no longer operational, the owners abandoned the Tanzania-flagged ship, leaving the crew stranded on board for five months without pay. The ITF and the Admiralty Court wrote to the Tanzanian ship registry but received no response.
The court order allowed for the ship to be auctioned, with the proceeds used to cover the crew’s costs and send them home. For Efstratiou, the outcome was emotional: “The crew are like family to me, so it was wonderful to see them set foot on land for the first time,” she said.
Stephen Cotton referred to the case of the Ali Arbocali detained in Turkey, commenting: “It’s fair to say Turkey hasn’t done well on this, they penalized the crew, when technically it was impossible for the crew to bring the drugs on board.”
More recently, Turkey arrested three more seafarers because drugs were found on a vessel they were serving on. The ITF is working with P&I Clubs, BIMCO, and shipowners to protect the seafarers’ interests.
According to Cotton, the ITF acknowledges that seafarers are sometimes involved in criminal activity, however, “We need to use technology, we need controls at the doors of containers.”
Consequently, the ITF is revising its shipping inspection reports around issues of seafarer safety, criminalization, and abandonment.
“We have a responsibility to understand these technologies to support the shipowners who are willing to embrace these changes,” he said.
Furthermore, the ITF is “looking at how to use artificial intelligence to understand the problems faced by seafarers. We currently have 150 ITF inspectors globally, and AI can make this a more efficient and safer tool. Then we can present evidence saying these are the facts, this is what’s happening, and we can go to employers and say let’s do these things better.”
Cotton concluded: “So, for us, technology should definitely be a powerful weapon to protect seafarers.” Utilizing technology will make this work more efficient.
Compiled by Shipping Online.
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