'They’d just given up’ — an inside look at seafarers trapped aboard ships amid COVID-19 restrictions

'They’d just given up’ — an inside look at seafarers trapped aboard ships amid COVID-19 restrictions
Geoff Baker Aug. 8, 2020 https://www.seattletimes.com/business/international-trade/an-inside-look...

Jeff Engels could sense the despair in the two seafarers wondering whether they’ll ever get home.

The crewmen had only been informed the day before that they wouldn’t be disembarking in Tacoma as planned despite one being aboard 13 months instead of a planned nine and the other for eight months instead of six.

“You could tell they’d just given up,’’ said Engels, who is helping repatriate some of the estimated 300,000 workers trapped aboard container ships and other sea vessels amid global pandemic restrictions. “They were very quiet and not saying much. There was no fight in them. Usually, they’re fighting to get off the boat and angry about it.”

Engels, the Seattle-based West Coast coordinator for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) — a trade group encompassing more than 670 unions from 18 nations — was inspecting working conditions on the Liberian-flagged MV Bellatrix container vessel on July 29. Only five of seven crew members expecting to disembark after being onboard for periods approaching a year or more without relief were allowed off.

Engels gave the two Filipino crewmen left behind a pep talk and hope of eventually getting off the ship so they can fly home, but only after an additional 3 1/2-week wait until it reaches Incheon, South Korea.

Roughly 90% of global trade takes place because of maritime transport involving 1.65 million seafarers, their work especially critical during a COVID-19 pandemic threatening supply lines. The seafarers are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing oceangoing vessels while navigating often-treacherous waters.
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But governments have been slow in reacting to the plight of workers trapped on ships months longer than agreed-to contracts, as have some ship owners unwilling to foot the considerable cost of repatriating them until their vessels are much closer to their home countries.

“These guys are all sending messages to their wives and their kids, telling them ‘I’m coming home! I’m coming home!’ And then boom! — they don’t get to go,” Engels said. “It’s heartbreaking and it’s going on all over the world.”

Workers at sea

Number of seafarers worldwide: 1,647,500
Estimated number of stranded seafarers trying to get home: 300,000
Number of merchant ships worldwide: 53,000
Nations supplying the most seafarers: China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, Ukraine
Percentage of worldwide shipping handled by sea: 90%
Combined 2019 freight revenue for top 50 carriers: $624 billion
Cost of building a high-tech shipping vessel: $200 million
Sources: International Chamber of Shipping, ITF, Statista, Transport Topics