Governments around the world flouting international maritime law and conventions and arresting sailors on criminal charges has turned sailing into a dangerous profession, a mariners’ body said Saturday.

“Over the last decade, there has been an increasing tendency to
criminalise mariners for accidents. This has been gaining ground not
only in Europe but in Asia too. Several nations have chosen to ignore
the international conventions they are signatories to, denying the
rights of seafarers and not treating them fairly,” S. Pullat, founder
of Mariner Welfare Guild, told IANS.

On Seafarers’ Day – first Saturday of every December – a group of
sailors held a protest meet near the Chennai Port Trust to attract
attention to the hardships faced by the seamen on high seas.

Pullat charged the Indian government of acting like many other
countries in detaining overseas seamen while turning a blind eye the
plight of seafarers who have been detained against the international
laws and conventions.

Citing the case of Glen Aroza of Mangalore, who is detained by
Taiwanese government for the past seven months, Pullat said: “He was
the Master of Panama flag motor tanker Tosa and was arrested on the
charge of his ship colliding with a Taiwanese fishing vessel killing
two fishermen.”

According to Pullat, Tosa was not in the Taiwanese waters but on
international waters and the country’s navy should not have boarded the
vessel on the high seas.

He charged the Indiaon, he cited the detention of two Chinese crew of
Asian Forest that ran aground near Mangalore port recently.

The Chinese were arrested on the grounds of failure to minimise pollution.

The Mangalore district authn government has done nothing to secure Aroza’s release.

Referring to the case of Sakhib Sakharkar, under detention in Algiers
for the past 15 months, Pullat said: “He noticed stowaways on board MSC
Shirley. When a search was mounted two stowaways escaped and one was
found injured.”

“The two escaped stowaways returned with police and took the injured
man to the hospital, where he died. The police questioned the two
stowaways, the Master, the Chief Officer and Sakharkar, and ordered the
latter to be detained,” he said.

Speaking of Indian violatiorities want the ship owners to remove the
400 tonnes of fuel in the ship at the earliest as an oil slick from the
wreck will be an major environmental issue.

Source: IANS

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