Thousands of sailors treated like slaves, live in fear: Report
Thousands of sailors treated like slaves, live in fear: Report
SYDNEY (Reuters): Tens of thousands of sailors on commercial
ships are being treated like slaves and live in fear of being
thrown overboard if they complain about exploitation and
mistreatment, according a report by an independent industry body.
The report "Ships, Slaves and Competition" found that on 10 to
15 percent of vessels, sailors from developing countries such as
the Philippines and Indonesia were being subjected to poor safety
conditions, excessive hours, unpaid wages, starvation diets,
rapes and beatings.
The report said crews told stories of sailors disappearing
after complaining to officers and of being blacklisted if they
sought union help to collect unpaid wages.
"For many thousands of today's international seafarers life at
sea is modern slavery and their workplace a slave ship," said
Peter Morris, the report's author and chair of the independent
industry group International Commission of Shipping.
"The seafarers who suffer the most are from Indonesia and the
Philippines, because they supply the bulk of seafarers, the
Philippines 200,000 and Indonesia 80,000," Morris told Reuters.
"In those countries there is so little opportunity to earn an
income, they are vulnerable, they are cheated and robbed."
The report, delivered at an APEC shipping conference in
Sydney, called on shipping companies, cargo owners and port
authorities to stamp out the slave conditions within five years.
The report will now go to the 21 member economies of APEC --
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum -- with the aim of
issuing a communique on safer shipping. APEC transport ministers
are scheduled to meet in Peru in October.
Morris said the U.S. Coastguard had been leading the push to
clean up shipping in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific.
And he said Europe was now on board following a series of
accidents, including an incident in December 1999 when the
Maltese-registered tanker Erika sank and spewed thousands of
tonnes of oil France's west coast.
Australian transport officials at the conference said it was
hoped Japan, the region's biggest shipping nation, would take a
lead role in pushing for safer shipping in Asia.
Sub-standard ships and working conditions were commercially
driven by cargo owners looking for the cheapest rates, said the
report, compiled by the commission after global hearings.
Morris said cargo owners, such as bulk ore and grain
operators, should take responsibility for forcing the slave-like
conditions on sailors.
"How do we end this exploitation and inhumane treatment of
working seafarers? One solution is to name the beneficiaries,
shame their actions...," Morris said.
Morris said the cost saving of avoiding international safety
standards on ships was around 15 percent of annual operating
costs, but added if the industry wiped out such operations,
overall shipping costs would fall due to lower insurance rates.
Morris said the worst conditions for sailors were found on
deep-sea fishing vessels operated mainly out of Japan and Taiwan,
which often conduct illegal fishing operations in territorial
waters and involved a criminal element.
Often novices from developing countries such as the
Philippines were hired by manning agencies to crew deep-sea
fishing vessels.