Human Rights at Sea published a podcast made by Second Engineer Vikas Mishra, abandoned on the UAE-flagged MV Tamim Aldar. The engineer has been abandoned for 33 months. The chief engineer discussed the problem of lacking tube and bunkers, meaning that the generators weren’t able to run for more than an hour a day, while the temperatures in the area were currently 40+ degrees Centigrade.
ITF reports that the 12 seafarers onboard Qaaswa have been sent home, after 13 months marooned off the Port of Sfax. They had been left abandoned off the Tunisian coast with no wages, food and fuel. The 12 crewmembers flew home to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar on May 31, with thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, with overall USD 130,952, for the eight months that they were owed.
Human Rights at Sea highlighted that the remaining abandoned Indian seafarers are trying to negotiate their salaries, keeping in mind that their two vessels have been arrested, and most seafarers were in such a desperate situation that they accepted the company’s offer without further negotiation.
In 2018, ISWAN launched a campaign to alert the shipping industry on the issue of unregistered crewing agencies in India; Now, the Network presents the campaign’s results and what follows next. Yet, up to now, there are many unregistered crewing agencies operating in India, resulting to seafarers facing poor working conditions onboard and sea time, to unpaid wages and abandonment.
The first version of the inaugural ‘Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea’ is published by Human Rights at Sea after the initial drafting session was held in Switzerland on 20-21 March 2019 at the Graduate Instiute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
ISWAN, in partnership with InterManager, ICS, ICMA and ITF, issued a new booklet, entitled ‘Arrested and Detained Vessels, and Abandoned Seafarers’, providing guidance to welfare organisations dealing with incidents of seafarers being abandoned and vessels being arrested or detained.
UK Human Rights at Sea published a third Abandonment of Seafarers Case Study, on behalf of Indian seafarer AB Mayur Gawade. The publication follows the case study on behalf of Captain Ayyappan Swaminathan, Master of the MV Azraqmoiah and the case study concerning the abundance of the eight Indian seafarers in Walvis Bay.
Human Rights at Sea published the first of a series of case studies on the families of Indian seafarers that are still abandoned for more than 33 months, offshore the UAE. HRAS’s latest publication ‘Abandonment. A Pattern of Human Rights Abuse’ aims to alert the public’s awareness of the consequences to those who suffer, including the family members left behind.
The crew of Venezuelan oil tanker ‘Rio Arauca’ is set to be dismissed, almost two years after being stuck in the middle of the river Tagus in Lisbon due to unpaid debt, according to managers Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM). The Rio Arauca arrived in Lisbon in May 2017, but has been inactive and unable to dock since then.
Eight Indian seafarers have been abandoned in Walvis Bay, between the timeframe of one and two years, onboard the St. Vincent and Grenadines-flagged vessel, Halani 1. The abandonment resulted to seafarers’ suffering from fatigue and serious mental health problems. As a result, the UK-based Charity ‘Human Rights at Sea’ stated that Captain Amarjit Singh Bajwa first contacted the charity’s Iran-based researcher, Hajar Hejazi, to appeal for urgent help.
