7K more PHL seafarers sailing for home

7K more PHL seafarers sailing for home
Recto Mercene - April 13, 2020 https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/04/13/7k-more-phl-seafarers-sailing-f...

CRUISE ships from Australia, Italy, the Caribbean and the United States are steaming toward Philippine waters to bring home more than 7,000 Filipino seamen, in addition to the nearly 12,000 earlier brought home by the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Labor.

It is estimated that the ships will arrive in Manila by the last week of April or mid-month of May 2020.

Major cruise operators Royal Caribbean, P&O Australia Carnival Cruise Line, Costa lines and Holland America Lines, unable to find for-hire airplanes, have decided to use their own ships to take back to the country an estimated 7,000 overseas Filipino workers.

This was announced by the respective cruise operators in social media, as they conceded difficulty in finding chartered airplanes due to the continuing suspension of flights amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chartering several big-body aircraft large enough to accommodate the thousands of repatriates is also hard, according to recruitment consultant Manny Geslani.

As of April 11, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported that it has welcomed more than 11,000 overseas Filipino workers—mostly seafarers—at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

This was carried out with cooperation from government sectors and the manning agencies who shouldered the airplane tickets for those who boarded commercial flights, or contributed to the cost of charter flights, according to Geslani.
100k seafarers in limbo

He said the repatriated seafarers are only one-tenth of the estimated 100,000 Filipino seamen on board 150 cruise ships all over the world that were forced to cut short their operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“There are more than 90,000 seamen on board cruise ships sailing off the coast of the US, Europe, Australia and Asia. These are unable to dock due to health reasons cited by countries [where] they want to drop anchor, fearing shipborne coronavirus would infect their population,” Geslani added.

When countries across the world announced a complete lockdown of airports, seaports and highways in mid-March due to the pandemic, hundreds of cruise ships sailing in the high seas were told by their mother companies to dock at the nearest port.

However, many of these ships were denied berthing rights. Some sought refuge in friendly ports and were able to unload their passengers and crews with expired contracts, non-essential crew or those who want to get off their ships to return home.

Those that could not find safe haven had no recourse but to resume sailing with thousands of crews still on board, the travel consultant said.

“Some cruise liners in Asia are sailing to Manila with 5,000 Filipino crews on board and will disembark most of them in Manila by third and fourth week of April 2020. Some of the crew members will get off in Cebu or Davao from Carnival ships, which are now on their way to the Philippines.”

Costa Mediterranea will sail from Italy to Asia starting on April 10, and will pick up other Filipino and Indonesian crews from Costa sister ships in Europe to deliver them to the Philippines by mid-May.

Geslani said that Costa Mediterranea, after disembarking crews in Indonesia and Manila, will proceed to Shanghai and arrive there by the end of May, “where it will be stationed for the meantime with sister ship Costa Atlantica.”

Both ships have been acquired by China State Shipbuilding in a joint venture with Carnival Corp., the owner of Costa Lines.

Holland America Line will utilize the cruise ship MS Eurodam, to return the Indonesian and Filipino crew members back to their respective countries.

Before setting sail on this long journey, MS Eurodam will pick up the crew members from the cruise ships MS Maasdam and MS Westerdam. “All three ships are lucky they have no positive cases of Covid-19 among their passengers and crews,” he said.

MS Eurodam will leave Los Angeles on April 16 to sail to the Philippines and Indonesia, with their Filipino and Indonesian crews.