The Secretariats of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) have submitted a Report on Recorded Seafarers’ Abandonment Cases (Doc. LEG 107/4) for IMO Legal Committee consideration which is to gather this March at IMO headquarters in London.
The Report is based on information on ships abandoned by shipowners and entered into the Joint IMO/ILO Database on Abandonment of Seafarers, which can be accessed here https://www.ilo.org/dyn/seafarers/seafarersbrowse.home.
A
detailed analysis of abandonment cases was also prepared by the
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and is presented
in the Doc. LEG 107/4/1. According to the ITF, Ukrainian seafarers
are listed second largest nationality, abandoned by shipowners in
2019, with 51 citizens of Ukraine or 22% of the total number of
seafarers.
In
addition, reported are the cases when the required financial security
coverage is absent on board the ships; therefore, absent is the
shipowner’s
liability for abandonment of
seafarers in violation of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as
amended. To our regret, none of the abovementioned cases have been
resolved for the benefit of seafarers. It is worth noting that the
earlier seafarers sought help, the more likely was a positive
resolution of the case.
In
order to ensure the appropriate level of protection of seafarers’
rights, the Union together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Ukraine has prepared and submitted to the IMO Legal Committee the
Document 107/4/4. This Document contains a list of proposals to
improve the effectiveness of the existing mechanism aimed at
assisting seafarers, abandoned by their shipowner. In addition, the
Document provides for seafarers to receive timely information on
ships’ financial coverage, and, if necessary, get to know where to
seek help in a timely manner.
Read
more in the Maritime Magazine #105, which will be released later this
week.
Recall
that the Document 107/4/4 is the second one submitted jointly by the
MTWTU and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to the IMO Legal
Committee. The first one (LEG 107/14) was also co-authored by
Georgia, Malaysia, the Philippines and ITF, ICS, IFSMA, INTERTANKO,
INTERCARGO, InterManager and WISTA.
