Stranded at sea: the humanitarian crisis that’s left 400,000 seafarers stuck on cargo ships

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 05:47:28 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/stranded-at-sea-the-humanitarian-crisis-thats-left-400-000-seafarers-stuck-on-cargo-ships-150446>

"It has been rightly described as a humanitarian crisis and a modern
form of forced labour.

In the early months of 2020, stranded cruise ships became a stark symbol
of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Now it is seafarers stranded on cargo
ships.

There are more than 50,000 such vessels, with about 1.6 million crew.

Before the coronavirus crisis, about 100,000 of these crew changed over
each month, typically after serving contracts capped at 11 months under
the United Nations Maritime Labour Convention. But since March, border
closures and other restrictions have prevented this for many seafarers,
forcing them into indefinite service, unable to even take shore leave."

Cheers,
        *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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