Ship management company Anglo-Eastern has offered its employees in the Odesa office and its roughly 1,000 Ukrainian seafarers to help evacuate their families from Ukraine. Response has overall been the same, informs COO Carsten Ostenfeldt to WPO.
Specifically today, it’s relatively peaceful in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa located by the Black Sea, if one can say that of any place in a country at war and under invasion from Russia.
But according to the reports that Carsten Ostenfeldt, COO of ship management company Anglo-Eastern, has received from the Odesa office, which employs 20 people, it’s possible Thursday to carry on with work in the city, which houses the most important harbor in the country.
We have offered all our staff to help evacuate their families from the country
Carsten Ostenfeldt, COO, Anglo-Eastern
It hasn’t been more than a week since the situation in the country – also the southern part – changed radically as Russian forces launched an invasion during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.
As a consequence, Anglo-Eastern has decided to offer help to all office staff as well as the roughly 1,000 seafarers employed by the Hong Kong-based company.
At the moment, approximately half are working at sea on the vessels, which Anglo-Eastern is contractually linked to.
”We have offered all our staff to help evacuate their families from the country. But actually no more than two families have taken the offer, and they have been assisted,” Ostenfeldt informs WPO.
Seafarers stay onboard
Among the 500 seafarers that are currently at sea, some have already been up for change of crew, however, they have chosen to postpone and stay onboard for the time being.
According to Ostenfeldt, that has also been recommended by the seafarers’ Ukrainian labor union.
At the same time, practical challenges begin to arise such as how the company handles employee payments, which, normally, have been provided via back accounts in the country. Anglo-Eastern’s solution has been to make payments directly to credit cards, ensuring the employees’ access to their money.
”It is with great concern we look at what is happening in Ukraine, and the situation becomes more complex as time goes by. We also have Russian seafarers onboard, and thankfully, cooperation between Russians and Ukrainians onboard the ships proceeds without any issues,” states Ostenfeldt.
The situation becomes more complex as time goes by
Carsten Ostenfeldt, COO, Anglo-Eastern
”But a question may be whether ships can arrive in Russia with Ukrainian seafarers onboard, just like Russia-sanctioning countries’ approach to ships carrying Russian staff may become an issue.”
Anglo-Eastern is continuously in contact with the Odesa office, roughly two to three times a week, while regular contact also takes place with Ukrainian seafarers on ships around the world.
IMO and ICS warn of consequences
Already last week, just as the invasion had been launched, WPO spoke to Anglo-Eastern, where Ostenfeldt drew up the different options the company could proceed with as a response to the conflict in Ukraine.
Anglo-Eastern is together with V.Group the world’s leading ship management firm. V.Group also has a significant number of Ukrainian seafarers and officers as well as Russian staff.
For instance, V.Group has 180 officers among its employees. Roughly half are Russians and Ukrainians. Last week, Managing Director Franck Kayser said that the company does what it can to keep contact with the families, but also that this can be difficult as some of the families choose to move west, where it’s safer.
”We try to keep close contact with the families, but we don’t know whether they will, for instance, choose to move west due to the conflict. At the moment, all 90 Ukrainians and Russians are at sea,” said Kayser last week to WPO.
Both the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have warned about the consequences for the global supply chains if the conflict ends up preventing crew changes and use of Ukrainian seafarers.
