On April 13, the naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a Portuguese-flagged container ship, the MSC Aries, within the Strait of Hormuz and detained its crew. The vessel is operated by Swiss-based Mediterranean Transport Firm, which is leasing it from London-headquartered Zodiac Maritime, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. The 25 crew members are residents of the Philippines, Pakistan, India, Estonia and Russia.
The incident was the most recent escalation of tensions in waterways across the Center East. Over the previous few months, the Houthis of Yemen have been attacking ships they deem to be linked to Israel and its allies.
On March 6, one such assault killed three seafarers on the True Confidence ship. Two of them had been nationals of the Philippines and the third was Vietnamese; the remainder of the crew, who’re from the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India, had been saved by an Indian naval ship. The Houthis claimed True Confidence was an “American ship”, however the vessel is Barbados-flagged, owned by a Liberia-registered firm and operated by a Greek one.
These incidents illustrate how weak seafarers will be attributable to unsafe waterways, but additionally as a result of lack of worldwide regulation on the transport trade. The explanation why so many various jurisdictions are concerned in a single vessel is as a result of the present guidelines permit transport firms and operators to register in several international locations and rent crew of any nationality.
Naturally, many firms select jurisdictions which provide few labour and tax rules and due to this fact little duty for the wellbeing and security of crews on board ships registered with their flags. Corporations additionally rent crew from international locations the place well-paid jobs aren’t simple to search out, which may imply seafarers are extra reluctant to talk out for worry of shedding their revenue.
This apply, which is known as “flags of comfort”, started in the US within the Twenties when the federal government banned the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcohol, pushing some ship homeowners to register their vessels in Panama to keep away from these restrictions.
After prohibition was lifted, this apply endured as American transport firms realised its advantages of lax regulation. In 1948, the previous US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius labored with the Liberian authorities to open its registry as a three way partnership. To this present day, the Liberian registry is operated out of Virginia, US.
My organisation, the Worldwide Transport Employees’ Federation, began its marketing campaign towards flags of comfort in 1948 in response to the institution of the Liberian register – because it had so few restrictions for shipowners.
The transport trade is reaping the advantages from the benefit of low-cost, low-bureaucracy companies supplied by “rent-a-flag” states. This implies minimal regulation, low-cost registration charges, low or no taxes, and freedom to make use of low-cost labour on the worldwide labour market. We name them flags of comfort as a result of it’s handy for ship homeowners that there isn’t a real hyperlink between that flag and the homeowners of the ship. This takes place regardless of the United Nations Conference on the Legislation of the Sea stating {that a} “real hyperlink” should exist.
The center of the issue for seafarers is that ship homeowners choose flag states they know will take little or little interest in implementing labour safety requirements. It’s an enormous money-making operation. Ship homeowners pay to register their ships with their chosen flag registries. In flip, it’s unhealthy enterprise for registries to demand rigorous security and welfare requirements as they eat into earnings.
For seafarers, this will imply very low wages, poor on-board situations, insufficient meals and clear consuming water and lengthy durations of labor with out correct relaxation.
As a world commerce union federation, we work tirelessly alongside our associates to advance and uphold transport staff’ rights by collective bargaining and strengthening worldwide and nationwide regulation.
Our world inspectorate of greater than 130 devoted inspectors – lots of whom are former seafarers themselves – examine ships calling into greater than 120 ports throughout 59 international locations, to make sure the seafarers have first rate pay, working and dwelling situations. And but, abusive practices persist. We obtain misery calls from seafarers every day and we see time and time once more, the rotten core of the transport trade.
We’ve got heard numerous tales of seafarers deserted, unpaid for months and even years, and their rights abused with full impunity.
Simply final week, we heard from a distressed Indian crew member nonetheless stranded: “My wage hasn’t been paid for greater than three months – however there are some crew members unpaid for so long as seven months. The corporate didn’t provide provisions and contemporary water – generally we had been simply fishing for survival. All crew members are getting depressed, and our households are entering into debt to outlive.”
“Till now I didn’t obtain any wage [for five months] and I wish to inform you we’ve got shortages of meals and gasoline on a regular basis, we’re struggling on a regular basis … Please I would like your assist,” an Indonesian seafarer advised us final month.
Many seafarers are struggling attributable to wage theft and underpayment. The minimal wage for seafarers on flag of comfort ships lined by collective agreements is about $1,700 a month. Seafarers on flags of comfort ships and not using a collective settlement generally sail for $400 to $600. It doesn’t bear to consider the hourly wage this equates to. And even with such low pay, firms nonetheless repeatedly delay or withhold salaries.
Final yr ITF Inspectors recovered greater than $54m in unpaid wages stolen from the seafarers by ship homeowners working predominantly underneath flags of comfort. We recuperate them by routine inspections that look at wage accounts and employment contracts – the place it’s all too frequent to search out discrepancies. Most ship homeowners will honour crew contracts when pushed – however we will, if want be, coordinate with port state management and dockers’ unions to make sure that ships can not sail till seafarers are paid.
What we’re seeing play out on the Crimson Sea exposes how the flags of comfort system may even imply seafarers danger their lives by crusing by unsafe areas – with out the facility to push again. Who will come to the rescue to guard crew on Panamanian, Liberian and Marshall Islands ships?
One Filipino seafarer advised us: “Our firm continues to be transiting the Crimson Sea even when it’s too harmful. We simply previous [sic] the Crimson Sea … [and] throughout that point we heard a variety of vessels asking for help on a warship that they’re being attacked … Individuals listed here are so frightened … We can not sleep very nicely considering of our lives.”
Stories have proven that diverting from the Crimson Sea has led to better earnings for some within the transport trade. This is because of increased prices related to longer routes and consequently, an elevated transport demand as a result of fewer ships can be found. But we’re nonetheless seeing firms prepared to proceed risking seafarers’ lives.
To recommend it’s simply the way in which enterprise is finished is disingenuous. It’s a alternative.
This may solely change if there’s extra transparency within the transport trade and – as worldwide regulation stipulates – there’s a “real hyperlink” between the actual proprietor of a vessel and the flag the vessel flies. The United Nations and its related our bodies, the Worldwide Maritime Group and Worldwide Labour Group, should additionally present extra readability round what a real hyperlink entails. Solely then can unions and authorities really maintain ship homeowners and flag states to account.
There’ll by no means be an actual stage enjoying discipline so long as flags of comfort can proceed to function on decrease requirements than conventional nationwide registers. Flag registers shouldn’t be allowed to function as companies.
Till then, seafarers’ rights will proceed to be abused with impunity. It’s time to shut the jurisdictional vacuum that exists at sea.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.