Seafarers

Formed to protect the rights of offshore workers in the Gulf of Mexico The ITF Offshore Task Force Group has concluded a two-day meeting in Split, Croatia.The group was formed as a stand-alone body in 1997 and is chaired by Norrie McVicar, previously chair of its predecessor group in the ITF.Originally formed with the participation of US and Mexican trade unions to protect the rights of offshore workers in the Gulf of Mexico, the group has expanded to include unions representing offshore workers around the world and support them in their efforts to develop collective bargaining.Delegates at the Split meeting also came from Asia Pacific and European unions.Danilo Prestint of the Seafarers Union of Croatia, which hosted the meeting, explains that the group's aims are identical to those of the ITF campaign against flag of convenience ships to work for the introduction of ITF acceptable agreements to ensure decent working and living conditions for those working in this industry.To this end, the group works to organise unorganised workers in the offshore oil and gas sector, prevent social dumping, encourage collective bargaining and freedom of union organisation, and ensure conditions of employment in accordance with the ITF.Maritime Union of Australia Deputy...

Passengers were evacuated and transferred to refugee camp near Tunisia-Libya border Tunisia's coast guard launched Wednesday operations to rescue some 700 would-be immigrants trapped on a fishing boat that stalled off the country's coast, the official TAP news agency said.The boat is believed to have set sail from Libya and was en route to Italy, the report said. Its passengers, which include women and children, are mostly of sub-Saharan African origin.Passengers alerted Tunisian coastal authorities after the boat stalled some 20 miles off the Kerkennah islands in southern Tunisia on Tuesday, TAP said. Because of difficult weather, the rescue operations couldn't begin until Wednesday morning.Passengers were being evacuated aboard inflatable rafts and are to be transferred to the Choucha refugee camp near the Tunisia-Libya border. The camp is providing shelter to sub-Saharan Africans and others who have fled months-long conflict between Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi and rebels.Meanwhile, Italian officials seized a yacht said to have belonged to the family of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was deposed in a popular uprising in January.The 14-meter (45-foot) vessel, the Atlantique 43, was anchored in the port of Italy's southern island of Lampedusa when it was seized by financial...

two-day meeting in Split of Croatia The ITF Offshore Task Force Group has just concluded a two-day meeting in Split, Croatia. The group was formed as a stand-alone body in 1997 and is chaired Norrie McVicar, previously chair of its predecessor group in the ITF.Originally formed with the participation of US and Mexican trade unions to protect the rights of offshore workers in the Gulf of Mexico, the group has expanded to include unions representing offshore workers around the world and support them in their efforts to develop collective bargaining. Delegates at the Split meeting also came from Asia Pacific and European unions.Danilo Prestint of the Seafarers' Union of Croatia, which hosted the meeting, explains that the group's aims are: "Identical to those of the ITF campaign against flag of convenience ships - to work for the introduction of ITF acceptable agreements to ensure decent working and living conditions for those working in this industry."To this end, the group works to organise unorganised workers in the offshore oil and gas sector, prevent social dumping, encourage collective bargaining and freedom of union organisation, and ensure conditions of employment in accordance with the ITF."Source: ITF

They were preferred as the recruitment of Bangladeshi sailors proved inconvenient Fifteen Myanmar seamen will replace the crew of MV Banga Biraj who have been stranded on board the detained vessel for more than a year off Northport here.HRC Shipping general manager Capt Shajahan Siraj said the company was getting Myanmar seamen as the recruitment of Bangladeshi sailors was proving inconvenient.A lot of them have heard of the current condition of the ship and they do not want to serve on the container vessel, said Shajahan in a telephone interview from Dhaka yesterday.The Myanmar nationals will replace the long-serving crew of Banga Biraj before Friday, he added.He said they were in the midst of submitting the papers for the foreign sailors to the Shipping Ministry in Bangladesh.Capt Shajahan said they were confident of repatriating all the crewmen by the deadline set by Suhakam, which warned that it would take legal action if it failed to do so.The Myanmar seamen are being signed on a six-month contract and they will be replaced by the end of the contract, he said.Meanwhile, the Daily Star newspaper in Bangladesh reported that the 30-year-old Banga Biraj had faced various troubles over the past decade.On July...

Since May 27 after leaving Australian port for Singapore A merchant navy officer from Jammu and Kashmir has gone missing from his tanker vessel since May 27, three days after leaving an Australian port for Singapore, his family said Tuesday.Bikram Singh, 30, second officer in the Japanese merchant navy company M.T. Yayoi Express Product Tanker, left Fremantle port in Australia May 24 for Singapore.Captain V.K. Jha from the companys office in Mumbai called us on the morning of May 27 and told us that Bikram was missing, Bikram Singhs younger brother Paramjit Singh told IANS on telephone from his village Ramgarh, about 40 km south of Jammu.Bikram Singh, who hails from a village near Jammu, was on a ship carrying oil and chemicals.We were told that the ship had just covered about 280 km from Fremantle port and was still in Australian waters when it was found that Bikram was not traceable.The company said the Australian Coast Guards made frantic searches for over 50 hours, but they could not find anything, a worried Paramjit Singh said.He said the company told him that the ship was taken back to the port, where the Australian police conducted a thorough search, but no...

For 43 days Eight foreign nationals, who were part of the crew of M/V Mirach that sunk off the coast of Kanyakumari recently, continue to be under detention without a court order. Tuesday marked the 43rd day of their detention, as the district administration and DG Shipping passed the buck on who is responsible for the decision to detain the sailors."I do not want to take any responsibility for detention as it has been done by the local authorities. We have completed an enquiry report and sent it to them," said Captain Harish Khatri, deputy director general of DG Shipping.The district administration had decided to hold back all the sailors who were on board based on directions from coast guard and DG Shipping, said Rajendra Ratnoo, district collector of Kanyakumari."We subsequently released 15 sailors as per a list prepared by DG Shipping. But their report does not specify who is responsible for the accident. We will produce the remaining crew before court after getting further clarifications from DG Shipping," he said.Source: The Times of India

Maritime Employment Review by Faststream Faststream recruiment group issued the Maritime Employment Review of May 2011.Since the last technical shipping market report by Faststream, on April 2010, the company has noticed a continual rise in confidence amongst bothcandidates and employers. Broadly speaking there is a rising global demand for people who have served at sea and are able to offer an employer their technical skills in an office based position.Whether as surveyors or fleet managers, vetting or technical superintendents, candidates with previous shore based experience who are able to take on responsibility with a minimal amount of retraining are finding that their services are very much in demand. The tanker sector continues to be an active hirer of technical staff.To view the Maritime Employment Review, click here.Source: Faststream

Foreign governments have to take measures for piracy Indian seafarers are threatening to refuse to sail to the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean if foreign governments fail to halt the increasing violent attacks on seafarers.The statement from Abdul Gani Serang, general-secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI), follows growing concern in India about the risks to Indian seafarers.There have been nationwide protests following the continued kidnap of seven Indian crew members of the Asphalt Venture, who Somali pirates still hold captive despite the payment of a ransom to release the ship and eight other crew members. Somali pirates currently hold captive about 50 Indian seafarers.Abdul Gani Serang commented that: They are kidnapped, taken hostage and going through terrible psychological trauma, and even their families suffer in silence. But little attention is given by international governments.Meanwhile, naval forces operating in the Gulf of Aden and other danger waters are continuing to take action to prevent attacks and rescue victims. In an operation in the Gulf of Oman on 16 May, naval forces are reported to have killed four pirates attacking the German-owned, Panama-flagged supertanker Artemis Glory.On 13 May, a French warship disrupted a...

Dubai intervened after e-mail from the vessel seeking for urgent help The 11-strong Indian crew aboard Samho Crown, an oil tanker stranded in Dubai waters for nearly four months, has finally heard the word of support from the Indian mission here.The Indian Consulate in Dubai intervened after one of the Indian officers on the vessel sent an e-mail seeking urgent help from the mission to release the remaining crew aboard, more than a month after their plight started getting highlighted in the media.The ship has been anchored some 15 nautical miles away from Port Rashid since January 28 after its Korean company Samho Shipping ran into rough weather following piracy attacks involving enormous ransoms on two of its ships.Of the 28 officers and crew aboard Samho Crown, which has been stranded here along with Samho Dream another supertanker belonging to the same company 21 were Indians. However, 10 of them and one citizen each of Bangladesh, Georgia and Pakistan, whose contracts had ended, were allowed to sign off after the company managed to pay their salaries for February and March during the last week of April.Since the condition of the rest of the crew remained the same without salary and...

The treaty is of increasing importance as global warming increases The leading nations with interests in the Arctic have gathered in Nuuk Greenland to sign a new Aeronautical and Maritime Search and rescue treaty governing the rescue of persons working in the frigid waters of the north.The treaty is of increasing importance as global warming increases the access of vessels trading and working in Arctic regions. Just this year a Russian icebreaker was deployed through howling winds and heavy snow to rescue icebound ships in the Sea of Okhotskwhere more than 500 seamen are trapped and several incidents involving arctic cruise vessels have been reported in the past two seasons.The nations participating in the treaty are members of the Artic Council, which include United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, but discussions where also held with indigenous inhabitants of the region. Noticeably missing from the talks are maritime superpowers like China and India, countries without Arctic territories that would, nevertheless, make use of new Arctic shipping lanes which may soon open to vessel traffic. But the Arctic Council has not ruled out the possibility of including these nations in future discussions and will discuss at what level...