Frank Coles, managing director of Wallem, has issued a stark warning to governments across the world. They ignore the months-long plight of seafarers unable to get home, at their peril.
“I think that some ships will stop. I have no doubt,” he said in reference to the International Transport Workers Federation this week recommending seafarers lay down their tools.
“We are seeing ships where crew are fighting. We are seeing ships where crew are becoming violent with the Captain. We are seeing ships where crew are sabotaging the equipment.
“Make no mistake this is a very, very serious situation,” he added.
Mr Coles said the only resolution to a rapidly escalating crisis would be for governments to step up to the plate to resolve it. “It’s a three-legged stool. You need the ports to be open, the receiving countries to be open and the flights to go between them. Depending on which part of the world you look at, one of those legs is broken.
“In Hong Kong you can do crew changes all day long,” he said, acknowledging last week’s move by the SAR Government to offer a seamless passage to and from ships through the hub. “But it is difficult to get the crew anywhere.”
There is now a desperate need for source countries to recognize that seafarers are citizens; and countries served by ships to acknowledge that seafarers are key workers, by providing airlines to fly them.
Equating the size of the task to “a massive ‘Berlin Airlift’, Mr Coles remarked “We have a national airline [Cathay Pacific] sitting on the ground with nowhere to go.”
Against incredible odds, ship managers have found ways and means to repatriate around 30,000 seafarers in the past three months. But this is just scratching the surface, Mr Coles said.
“If the numbers are right, and I think they are, we need to repatriate around 100,000 seafarers per month. You can see the problem. The ITF announcement will resolve nothing because we cannot magic all the crew on an airplane tomorrow.”
In response to a blockade imposed by the USSR on June 24,1948 the Berlin Airlift involved the US and the UK airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in West Germany. The crisis ended on May 12, 1949.
Source:hongkongmaritimehub
“I think that some ships will stop. I have no doubt,” he said in reference to the International Transport Workers Federation this week recommending seafarers lay down their tools.
“We are seeing ships where crew are fighting. We are seeing ships where crew are becoming violent with the Captain. We are seeing ships where crew are sabotaging the equipment.
“Make no mistake this is a very, very serious situation,” he added.
Mr Coles said the only resolution to a rapidly escalating crisis would be for governments to step up to the plate to resolve it. “It’s a three-legged stool. You need the ports to be open, the receiving countries to be open and the flights to go between them. Depending on which part of the world you look at, one of those legs is broken.
“In Hong Kong you can do crew changes all day long,” he said, acknowledging last week’s move by the SAR Government to offer a seamless passage to and from ships through the hub. “But it is difficult to get the crew anywhere.”
There is now a desperate need for source countries to recognize that seafarers are citizens; and countries served by ships to acknowledge that seafarers are key workers, by providing airlines to fly them.
Equating the size of the task to “a massive ‘Berlin Airlift’, Mr Coles remarked “We have a national airline [Cathay Pacific] sitting on the ground with nowhere to go.”
Against incredible odds, ship managers have found ways and means to repatriate around 30,000 seafarers in the past three months. But this is just scratching the surface, Mr Coles said.
“If the numbers are right, and I think they are, we need to repatriate around 100,000 seafarers per month. You can see the problem. The ITF announcement will resolve nothing because we cannot magic all the crew on an airplane tomorrow.”
In response to a blockade imposed by the USSR on June 24,1948 the Berlin Airlift involved the US and the UK airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in West Germany. The crisis ended on May 12, 1949.
Source:hongkongmaritimehub
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