More seafarers have requested assistance from the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), Nautilus International says.
The union’s general secretary Mark Dickinson told a European Shipping Week (ESW) conference in Brussels earlier today that the answer to current political and economic turmoil can be found within the shipping microcosm.
He told TradeWinds: “Barely a day seems to go by without some new story about stranded seafarers or substandard ships being found in European ports.
“It is crew who pay for the industry’s cost-cutting. 2015 saw a 27% increase in the number of seafarers having to be assisted by ISWAN and I am told that 2016’s figures follow a similar pattern.”
“It is about time to stop considering seafarers as the surplus of people.”
TradeWinds has reported a number of crew abandonment cases over the past months.
Seafarers have been left stranded in different locations around the globe for up to a year.
Syamantak Bhattacharya, director of the maritime science and engineering school of Solent University, told the conference: “There is no other higher problem in shipping than seafarers health and safety.
“Data is very difficult to get but there is clear evidence that seafarers have above-average risk of losing their lives at sea or getting injured.”
Dickinson added: “These sad statistics should show us that unbridled competition can come with a big price tag and that there should not be a place within Europe for competition based on the lowest common denominator.
“We need to champion a race to the top both in social, safety and environmental standards."
