Tag: human rights

The Senate passed, on February 14, a compromise package to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. President Donald Trump signed it, which resulted to ending what would be a second government shutdown. Amongst other results, the announcement means that the USCG members will most likely continue receiving pay, along with federal employees.

Despite months of negotiations, many EU member states insist that seafarers and fishers should be excluded from the guarantees in the new Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, ETF noted ahead the release of the revised Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive.

Martin Ackermann, CEO of BW LPG confirmed that the company's LPG carrier 'BW Helios' arrived at a recycling facility in India on January 21, as the company aspires to be compliant with the Hong Kong Convention. The yard was fully inspected and certified by an International Class Society in Mar 2017, meeting the requirements of IMO Resolution 210/63, 2012 guidelines for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, as per the Hong Kong Convention.

UN Refugee Agency published a report according to which apporximately 2.275 people died or went missing in attempts to cross the Mediterranean in 2018, despite an important decrease in arrivals reaching European shores. Overall, 139.300 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe, marking the lowest number in five years. The latest 'Desperate Journeys' report, released by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, says six lives were lost on average every day.

USCG members are receiving money back, concerning their pay for January 15 paycheck, which went unpaid due to 35-day government shutdown. The payment began because of an agreement between President Donald Trump and the leaders of the House and Senate and the federal government has been funded through February 15. As a result, USCG families are provided with two additional pay periods in case of another shutdown.  

Thailand is the first country in Asia to accept the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (No. 188), that protects the living and working conditions of fishers onboard vessels. The Convention has specific requirements related to work on board fishing vessels, including occupational safety and health, medical care at sea and ashore, rest periods, written work agreements, and social security protection.

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.

British human rights charity 'Justice Upheld' has started a petition for 40 seafarers from India, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea and Ethiopia, who have been deliberately abandoned at sea on ships owned by an UAE-based shipping company for over 27 months without pay.

Despite a century of abolition efforts, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, passed by Congress in 2016, skippers still have the authority to punish 'troublesome sailors' with nothing to eat but bread and water, but this is to change from the very first day of 2019 with an update of the US Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Human rights at sea gains significant attention of the maritime community. Due to its diversified identity, shipping constitutes a friendly field for human rights abuses, with human trafficking, illegal migration, slavery and abuse in fishing sector and even the unsafe working conditions in many Southeast Asian ship recycling facilities being among the key areas of concern.