India: Online survey on seafarers losing jobs despite being fully vaccinated

Online survey on seafarers losing jobs despite being fully vaccinated
Jayprakash S Naidu July 11, 2021 https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/online-survey-on-seafare...

Based on the survey, the union intends to take up the issue with the Centre and other international bodies to ensure there are no further job losses in the sector.

The Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) is conducting an online survey for seafarers to find out if any of them was denied jobs on merchant vessels abroad despite receiving both doses of vaccines and how many have lost jobs because they are not vaccinated.

Based on the survey, the union intends to take up the issue with the Centre and other international bodies to ensure there are no further job losses in the sector.

“Due to the slow vaccination rate, many seafarers are not fully vaccinated. Also, there is hesitancy to hire Indian seafarers due to the Delta variant of Covid-19. We want to find out how many seafarers are losing jobs due to vaccine-related issues,” said Manoj Yadav, general secretary of FSUI.

Another issue faced by the seafarers is that those who have taken both doses of Covaxin are not getting jobs abroad as the vaccine is yet to get authorisation from WHO. “We have taken up this issue with the government. Those who have taken two doses of Covishield are getting jobs on vessels in other countries but many, who took Covaxin, are being denied jobs in some countries in Europe, the US, Malaysia, Hongkong and China,” said Abhijeet Sangle, working president of All India Seafarer and General Worker Union.