Most of the shipping industry is connected in social media, and the abundance of posts every minute makes it impossible to follow all the hot news in the industry, the new products, the webinars and online conference, the actual exhibitions and conferences and meetings that are taking place in real time, however, there is a new voice out there that hardly anyone knew about before March 2020.
In effect 23 March 2020 was the 1st day when all the airports closed and internationals flights were suspended, causing a total unbalance in the crew changes programs.
We all knew that crews usually work on rotation, and many of us probably believes that every port of call meant seafarers coming down, go to doctors or dentists, souvenirs shop, stock up with certain products and why not, take a taxi or a bus with some of your fellow seafarers and get to know the nearest city and landmarks. That March 2020 changed it all, and the odyssey of crew changes started for many.
When Flag States realised that crew changes were not happening, all of them, together with IMO, devised a mechanism to ensure that ships were continuing operating safely and crews were allowed to continue working onboard and extend their 11 months maximum period allowed by MLC.
In horror and up in arms, most of the avid critics, started a crusade of pointing fingers, without realising the most elementary factors, which were:
(1) The country of origin of many seafarers, specially in Asia, were closed.
(2) Embassies were closed, so visas to travel for “new” seafarers were not possible.
(3) Airports, Ports and Borders were closed, so no one could go in or out. From the above, it is obvious clear that seafarers overextended their periods onboard, and Flag States started to request Risk Analysis and other documentation to allow the permanency of the seafarers on board to be legal and completely covered by the ship’s insurances.
Furthermore, Flag States started extending the validity of the documentation automatically, in many cases beyond one year as there was no possible way to have any document renewed.
The chaos described above could have been easily avoided if Maritime Authorities had had a louder voice, enough to silence the Health Ministries, who at the time where the ones giving the marching orders while ignoring all the logistics, ports, crewing, shipping and supply chain operations. Heads of States and their Governments had the Health Ministries at the table but unfortunately very few had the Flag State represented and that is where the world was in a situation where the blind was leading the blind.
This is when our story starts, at that point, when seafarers are prisoners in their ships, unable to return to their home, and their replacement are back in their homes, unable to join their ships.
This situation highlighted the failure and inability of the countries represented at the IMO to convince and persuade their governments of the imperative need to declare seafarers as “keyworkers” and give them carte blanche to a passage to a from their ships. This shameful failure will always accompany them in history. Shipowners and managers were left at their peril to do crew changes as and when they could, and every single Seafarers Directorate will have a bag full of stories and experiences to enrich the tragic situation the industry in general had to endure.
Among all these, the seafarers were desperate, many missed their wedding or the birth of their child, many lost families and couldn’t stay with them at home at their final hour. All of this created a movement in the social media, among the ones that had access to internet, or at home, among the ones with no jobs or stuck in hotels miles from home, even some cruise and casino workers were stuck on their cruise ship unable to disembark, regardless of their “negative testing result”, divers with the licence expired were unable to work, no one was Persona Grata at that point.
From being a large group with no voice, seafarers suddenly had a voice. Day in day out, their stories, their comments, their posts and pleas, in the thousands started to make a present in our social media. We could read their thoughts, suggestions, we could hear their voices, and this was a wakeup call. From being invisible, now we could read about them on first hand, and we grew and grew and made echo of their plea.
Over two years and half later, when all should be normal, is it? Well, no.
In April 2022 a post in social media asked to describe with one word what Seafarers meant. Many wrote slave, forgotten, and other words too painful to repeat. Hundred of words were registered in hours, and the only word that no one wrote was Pride. Thousands of people read it and hundreds wrote, but no one felt that Seafaring was a proud occupation. No one felt pride to be a seafarer. These were alarm bells for all of us, seasoned shipping people.
The social media phenomenon continued, and from seafarers asking to go home, we found ourselves, ready about freshers and cadets, begging for a position, begging for a ship, begging to be helped, because they were in heavy debt, due to the course been financed, due to the loans taken. Unscrupulous crew agents demanding large sums of money to offer a job on a ship, and these ships were not up to high standards. Cadets with no experience couldn’t apply for a job. Cadets with no experience? A cadet needs previous experience? Apparently yes.
Hundred of posts everyday from cadets of all nationalities looking for a job. They have been unemployed in many cases for 2 years or more and their families cannot maintain the situation for much longer. Meanwhile Flag States keep licencing and given accreditation to maritime training schools, and these schools keep inviting students to come to a profession with no immediate future, only the lucky ones, or the ones that persevere month after month and post their CVs all over the social media and asking to have a job onboard.
It is time for Flag States, School and Shipowners to sit down together and device a plan. We cannot have factory of cadets that can’t go ahead and become seafarers. The irony is that we have a shortage of seafarers on all positions and ranks.
Our industry future will be in their hands, however sometimes I think does the industry is relying on the future of AI and MASS ships and they believe that there will be no need for seafarers any longer?
How to improve the situation? Flag States could give incentives to Shipowners offering a place onboard to cadets, and our future could be secured in the short term.
MASS ships may not need anyone onboard, but definitely more than one seafarer will be needed to be somewhere checking the remote readings for bunkers, ballast water or the radar, and those could be the unemployed cadets we have now desperately looking for a job.
© Maria Dixon 2022
