Strong concern about the lack of fair treatment
Representatives of Asian shipowners have expressed their strong concern about the lack of fair treatment by an increasing number of government agencies given to seafarers.
The meeting of the Asian Shipowners Forum (ASF) Ship Insurance and Liability Committee (SILC) on Tuesday discussed incidents where seafarers were held hostage while the authorities carried out lengthy investigations.
There were also other incidents where seafarers were held until impossibly high bail amounts were set, justified by the authorities as being commensurate with the environmental and economic damage resulting from the incident. Robert Ho, chairman of the meeting in Hong Kong, said: “It would appear that it is a lack of understanding of ship operations and a lack of respect for seafarers that seem to result in their unfair treatment when something goes wrong.”
The committee urges all governments to follow both the joint IMO/ILO guidelines on the fair treatment of seafarers in the event of a maritime accident and the IMO casualty investigation code. There are currently about 587 seafarers being held hostage by pirates, a figure that is “unacceptable in this day and age”, Ho said.
Source: Seatrade-Asia
