A seafarer was trapped alone on his ship without food or electricity for months, and no-one would help until the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) intervened. He has finally made it home.
Eleven seafarers trapped aboard the Haj Abdulla (IMO 7702114) are at extreme risk, with the ship taking on water off Mogadishu, Somalia.
The Inspectorate of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has red listed Able Maritime Seafarers Inc after the crewing agent failed to respond to official enquiries from the ITF about the diabolical pay and terrible conditions of seafarers the company placed in work.
A flood of new allegations against the Philippines-based manning agent have emerged as a result of publicity generated by the ITF’s questions, raised publicly last month.
Two Filipino seafarers exploited by one of Fiji’s main ferry operators have made it home thanks to the unstinting efforts of the ITF’s inspectors and others.
The ITF has added seven countries to its list of flags of convenience. These are countries which take registration fees but then typically avoid any of the responsibilities that go with being a flag state.
Seafarers trapped on the MV Angelic Power (IMO 9250189) since July last year have now been repatriated, following a lengthy battle in the Chinese courts. ITF demands swifter action from these and similar authorities who leave seafarers to fester while they concentrate on financial matters.
Seafarers’ unions today welcomed the release of the MV Ever Given (IMO: 9811000) from detention in the Suez Canal by Egyptian authorities, but warned that more must be done to safeguard seafarers’ rights and welfare during the pandemic.
Captain Vehbi Kara was allowed to return home to Turkey last week having been trapped in the port of Adabiya, Suez for more than a year as the latest seafarer affected by Egypt’s peculiar legal guardianship system.
Nineteen seafarers from India, Bangladesh, Turkey and Azerbaijan will be able to see their families again this week after the ITF’s advocacy brought their two-year ordeal to a close. One member of the MV ULA (IMO: 8102414) crew had even been trapped aboard the ship for 31 months.
New figures released by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) show that $44,613,880 USD of seafarers' owed wages were recovered by the ITF’s network of inspectors across the world last year. Meanwhile, the number of ship abandonments reported more than doubled from 40 in 2019, to 85 in 2020.
