We must remember seafarers’ families in the Stena Impero crisis

We must remember seafarers’ families in the Stena Impero crisis
John Green, London, UK 24 July 2019 https://www.ft.com/content/183e788a-ad54-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2

In the Financial Times’s coverage of the Stena Impero crisis you have said that “tankers had become ‘pawns’ in a diplomatic dispute’’ (22 July). However, it is rather the seafarers, of whom little mention has been made, who are the real pawns. One moment they are going about their professional work, the next they are taken by foreign forces.

It is not only the crew of the Stena Impero that are the pawns, but also their wives and children. Already our port chaplains around the world are saying the families of seafarers working on other tankers even in areas of no risk are concerned for their safety. The effects of this crisis on ordinary seafarers and their families must not be forgotten.

John Green
Stella Maris (Apostleship of the Sea)
London EC4, UK