Anchoring Seafarers’ Rights: An Indispensable Step For Pakistan’s Maritime Future

Anchoring Seafarers’ Rights: An Indispensable Step For Pakistan’s Maritime Future – OpEd
Syeda Fizzah Shuja December 15, 2024 https://www.eurasiareview.com/15122024-anchoring-seafarers-rights-an-ind...

Pakistan’s exclusive geostrategic location has the potential to conduct its coronation in the world of Blue Economy. The country has an approximately 990km long coastline and possesses authority over the Exclusive Economic Zone that covers about 240,000 sq km.

In addition to this, the continental shelf area of about 50,000 sq. km makes Pakistan a pertinent territory in the Indian Ocean Region-IOR. The maritime trade act as a base of the national economy as 95% of trade. However, a root sector known as seafarers or maritime laborers is considered the main driving force behind the whole mechanism and is still facing a lack of consideration.

The human resource of production is named labor. Unluckily, there is low-grade headway in the aggregate welfare of seafarers, which is the summation of organizational, social, managerial, and physical needs. To protect the rights of maritime labor, the articulation of the Maritime Labour Convention (2006) brought a paradigm shift for global labor rights implementation in the world of naval legislation. This convention codifies the maritime labor standards as a junction point of all the previous 68 ILO (Normative) laws. And covers a wide range of socio-economic matters related to living and working conditions of labor in various aspects such as medical and healthcare, recreational facilities, food, and clothing.

The MLC is the fourth pillar of the International Regulatory Regime for quality marine

shipment. This convention works as a unified body of 16 correlated articles, regulations, and a duplex code, and its flexible nature makes it adaptable globally. It prescribes an extensive system of compliance and enforcement based on the flag state assessment and the certification of convention requirements with port state inspection. Seafarer bills of rights demonstrate the aspects such as; definition and scope of applications-Article II, fundamental rights and principles-Article III, seafarer employment and social rights-Article IV, and other articles addressing the rights and duties of ship owners and seafarer organizations, for instance; entry into force-Article VIII.

Pakistan entered the MLC bubble on August 20, 2013, intending to provide supreme importance to the seafarer rights and create a competitive zone for flagship owners of ratifying states. In March 2020, The Government of Pakistan reviewed 39 ILO instruments, amended Merchant Marine Policy (2001), and decided to ratify four new ILO conventions-including MLC. This initiative attracted private investors for the incentives like a long-term finance facility, contraction of gross cargo tax, and first berthing rights to flag carriers. According to the BIMCO seafarer workforce report 2021, Pakistan possesses a fleet of 57 ships, seven oil tankers, five bulk carriers, and about 12.168(m) working seafarers.

“Without seafarers, half the world would starve while the other half would freeze.”

Presently, the maritime industry of Pakistan is undergoing multifarious challenges that are needed to be countered rapidly on the political, social, economic, and technological levels. In my opinion;

Article IV (MLC) advocates the rights of employees and seafarers’ social rights; approximately only 8% of Pakistani lives in coastal whereas comparatively 35%-65% population acquires coastal areas worldwide. The population density requires good employment opportunities and well-developed infrastructure. It incorporates Mandatory law for ports,

shipping, carriage, and freight insurance, shipbuilding, ship repair, travel, scientific research and study, consultancy services and investment, sustainable living, and development. According to International Maritime Organization, the estimated shortfall of seafarers is about 84,000 personals. Pakistan can contribute a fair number of its trained seafarers benefiting the country with a good amount of revenue. For this, the state needs to fill the gap by creating new captivating opportunities to attract maritime seafarers. Government should develop intergovernmental and inter- ministerial job opportunities for sea workers.

Education is the fundamental right of every citizen. Pakistan is lagging in the arena of maritime education (MLC Article III). The Government of Pakistan should introduce blue economy degree programs at the higher education level. Establish a network of researchers, industry stakeholders, government staff, and media outlets to create and disseminate awareness and knowledge about the scope and potential of blue resources. The mainstream of knowledge by researchers can be beneficial for information campaigns and broader understanding and insights in this field. Moreover, the lack of education in the sea labor communities has kept them away from modern technologies and systems.

Instigation of technological equipment or welcoming the digital revolution can be the other key factor to overcome the problems related to the maritime sector. Technological advancements help record Seafarers’ data and documentation, sign-in, and sign-off activities.

Many Pakistani local ships are losing competitiveness due to no administrative support. In addition to this, reportedly most registered ships have dual registration in Pakistan and Iran which is assembling a national security threat. The government of Pakistan needs to devise a survey to better understand the hidden nature
and concealed resources of the blue economy. Institutionalisation is crucial for the smooth running of the maritime system.

I’d like to summarize it by demonstrating that MLC 2006 was the first convention to introduce a unified legal system for seafarer rights from the dual perspective of labor law and international maritime law. In response to the current challenges plaguing the marine industry, the new MLC 2006 Convention aims to address the laws, boost compliance and strengthen enforcement operations.

Pakistan has a striking geostrategic location, which offers opportunities and challenges as well to the sea goers community. Geography, investment, and timely implementation of policies are important in the development of maritime trade and ports. The maritime sector is facing many challenges such as lack of administration, poor governance, and investment. The need of the hour is to create an effective national consent mechanism and coordinate institutional efforts to harness Pakistan’s ‘blue’ economic prospect.

yeda Fizzah Shuja is a Research Associate at Pakistan Navy War College (PNWC), Lahore.