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.
Elizabeth Mavropoulou, Charity Administrator & Programme Manager at HRAS, provides a short comment on the HRAS Case Study on the Seafarers Abandonment in the UAE. Namely, 40 crew members, of whom 30 Indian nationals, were stranded in three vessels owned by the same shipping company.
KIZAD, which is an industrial zone and part of Abu Dhabi Ports, announced the launch of the KIZAD Polymers Park, which is expected to form an integral part of the UAE’s polymers conversion ecosystem. The new park will benefit Abu Dhabi’s positions as a development and innovative hub in sustainability and technology, including advanced polymer technologies such as composites and 3D printing.
The North P&I Club reminds that from the 1st January 2019 the UAE will require that selected flagged vessels are classed by a classification society that is a member of the IACS or with Tasneef. This requirement will apply to vessels calling at UAE ports or anchor or performing bunkering operations within the UAE’s EEZ.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced, on December 11, that the company has safely loaded, for the first time, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Propylene onto the same vessel, which was docked in Ruwais, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Human Rights at Sea presented a case of 40 seafarers who are abandoned in difficult conditions in the UAE. The seafarers suffer from physical and mental health issues, while their salaries are outstanding for more than a year.
Ahead of the 2020 sulphur cap, Transparency International said that the IMO should give the new working group a remit that allows it to effectively increase public scrutiny and civil society participation. The NGO is also worried that some of the Member States could obstruct IMO’s reform.
Under the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976, shipowners may limit their liability in maritime claims by establishing a limitation fund. From 1 February 2018, Singapore’s Rules of Court have been amended to allow a person seeking relief in a limitation action to constitute a limitation fund either by making payment into Court under an order of the Court, or by producing a LOU from a P&I Club acceptable to the Court.
Abu Dhabi Terminals selected Konecranes to supply an Automated Stacking Crane system for the second phase of the building of its container terminal in Khalifa Port, namely the Khalifa Port Container Terminal. The order includes 54 Automated Rail Mounted Gantry cranes.
As part of its recent efforts to eliminate substandard shipping, the UAE’s Federal Transport Authority issued a circular mandating that ships under 25 flags should be classified by a member society in the IACS or by UAE classification society (Tasneef), if they are to call UAE Ports or anchor in UAE waters.
