Every day, dozens of seafarers and their families turn to the MTWTU for help. Each has different problems and needs: financial support, legal advice, or consultations with an ITF Inspector.
However, the MTWTU recently received a request from a seafarer's wife with a very unusual situation. The woman asked for help repatriating her husband's body from Georgia to occupied Mariupol.
After the voyage, the seafarer signed off in Georgia. He had no complaints about his health and was waiting for his family to join him in a rented apartment. One morning, the family lost contact with a seafarer. Later, they received the bad news: the seafarer had died. Doctors stated that the death was due to natural causes, and his professional activity had nothing to do with the situation.
The relatives immediately began the repatriation process but faced many problems and obstacles. Seafarer's parents wanted to return the body to Mariupol to bury their son in his hometown.
The Marine Transport Workers' Trade Union of Ukraine was constantly in touch with the seafarer's family and advised them.
After a while, with the MTWTU's assistance, the body was returned to the temporarily occupied Mariupol, as requested by the family. The family paid all repatriation costs, which doubled due to the war, on their own, as the seafarer's death occurred not during the contract. Therefore, the MTWTU, together with the ITF Seafarers' Trust, compensated the costs of repatriating the body of the deceased seafarer.
Sometimes, we are approached by families who have already "knocked on the door" of all services and authorities, none of which were able to help. In such cases, the last hope for people is the Trade Union. The MTWTU has no choice but to help at any cost by applying maximum efficiency in any situation. However, the full-scale war has been going on for almost a year now, and during this time, we have learned to respond to the challenges of current realities.
