CDC order leaves 1,000 Filipino seafarers languishing in hotels

CDC order leaves 1,000 Filipino seafarers languishing in hotels
Recto Mercene December 5, 2020 https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/12/05/cdc-order-leaves-1000-filipino-...

About a thousand Filipino seafarers who were notified in October to join their cruise ships following the opening of a “Green Lane” in July are now languishing in hotels in Metro Manila after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a “no cruise order for US ports,” citing fresh Covid-19 breakouts in cruise ships.

The Filipino mariners were earlier mobilized by C.F. Sharp Crew Management Inc., the accredited manning agency of Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL), to join their ships scheduled to sail in October or November.

However, because of the new CDC guideline, the latest official word is that the NCL cruises will start in March 2021, according to recruitment consultant Manny Geslani.

“The seafarers are staying in isolation rooms of hotels in Metro Manila, namely, Marriott, Fairmont, Heritage and Savoy Hotels.”

Geslani said the seafarers are now suffering emotional and mental anguish over their long-delayed departure.

They have also sought the help of Rep. Eric Pineda, Pacman party-list chairman, of the House Committee on Labor and Deployment, who in turn wrote a letter to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Administrator Bernard Olalia “to look into the condition of the distressed overseas Filipino workers [OFW], who have been locked-up in their hotel rooms for the last 45 days.”

Geslani said the seafarers are not receiving salaries or allowances, “although they have signed their contracts with the cruise line, which stipulates that the salaries of seafarers start upon embarkation of their ship.”

The seafarers have requested that if their cruise will start in March 2021, “they should be allowed to go home to spend Christmas and New Year with their families and to be called back only when their NCL ships are actually ready to set sail.”

The Philippines was hailed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for being the first to launch in July 2020 the first Green Lane for seafarers in Asia and allow the free movement of all cargo and cruise ship personnel across borders.

“This is landmark in every sense and it encompasses the protection and facilitation of all seafarers of all nationalities because we believe that the pandemic means exactly that: A global contagion affecting mankind,” said Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.

Locsin pointed to the need for ships to be given fresh crew to keep the international maritime trade moving. “We need to address the situation of the world’s seafarers without whom there would be no shipping and who ensure the maintenance of global supply chains.”

“With these guidelines, we are answering the call of the International Maritime Organization and the maritime industries, to put in place a framework for ensuring safe ship crew changes and travel during the Covid-19 pandemic. And we are doing more,” he said.

The guidelines cover seafarers, licensed manning agencies, shipping companies, airlines and other entities involved in facilitating the travel of seafarers for purposes of crew change and repatriation during the crisis.