The Port of Dakar in Senegal has said it is too busy to rescue a cargo ship at its anchorage which has been without electricity and sidelights for months, putting its seafarers and those on passing ships in grave danger – especially at night.

The MV Onda (IMO 8912467) was declared abandoned in December 2021 and has now been at Dakar for more than five months. Its engine has broken down meaning that it has no power and so cannot be lit to warn passing vessels of its presence.

The risk of a collision with the unlit vessel is high due of the anchorage’s proximity to a crowded seaway, warns the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

“Dakar’s anchorage has ships coming and going all the time. It sits a few kilometres from West Africa’s main shipping lanes,” said Steve Trowsdale, Inspectorate Coordinator at the ITF. “An unlit vessel positioned there at night puts the lives of the Onda’s seafarers in immediate danger as well as those on any ship passing by. There has already been one near miss. If an oil tanker crashes through the Onda, there will be an environmental as well as human disaster.”

The ITF has contacted authorities at Dakar asking that the Onda is towed into port so that repairs can be made to the engine to make it safe. Their response was that the port is already too busy.

“That’s unacceptable,” said Trowsdale. “Effectively, they are prioritising the business of the port over the safety of seafarers. I hope the people who have made this decision can be persuaded to change their minds before there is a catastrophe and they have the lives of seafarers on their consciences.”

Owners are nowhere to be seen

The four seafarers from Cameroon, Lebanon, Nigeria and Syria have been left without pay or sufficient provisions by the Onda’s owners and operators for months. The ship is operated by AMJ Marine Services of Honduras. It is owned by the Amin Ship Company SA, also of Honduras. They have been providing the crew with some provisions but not nearly enough to survive.

The ITF has stepped in to ensure they receive full provisions and drinking water for as long as they remain at anchor.

The crew are owed each between five- and nine-month’s pay, estimated at over USD $59,000. All four seafarers have requested repatriation, at the cost of the owner, as is their right under the Maritime Labour Convention. This is unlikely to happen until the ship is allowed into the main port at Dakar.

This is the second time a crew on the Onda has been abandoned by its owners Amin Ship Company. In 2020, the company claimed that the ship was laid up in Douala, Cameroon with only watch keepers on board, even though four crew members had paperwork showing they were fully fledged seafarers. Crew were owed several months’ wages. They were tricked into taking some wages as cash with a promise that they would receive the rest after a month. But once they left the vessel they never received anything.

This time around, the Onda’s owners and operators did not respond to the ITF when the federation asked them to explain why the ship has been left in the dangerous situation or when the crew will be paid.

‘Chaotic’ Flag of Convenience system failing seafarers

The situation is made more complex by the Onda’s uncertain flag status. It was previously registered in Togo, but that country says that registration was transferred to Guyana in July 2021. Indeed, the ship was picked up broadcasting a Guyanese call sign on its automated identification system as recently as April this year. However, the Guyana register has no record of the ship and suspects it is operating illegally under a ‘false flag’.

“The Flag of Convenience system is chaotic,” said Trowsdale, “and leaves ample room for unscrupulous shipowners to dodge and weave their way out of their obligations. Governments have allowed a morally bankrupt system to develop where it’s commonplace to see a ship change register on paper four or five times over its service life, switching between flags to avoid tax, evade environmental regulations, and duck their responsibilities to crew.”

While owners like Amin can so easily avoid their obligations, often it falls to port authorities like those in Dakar to step in and save the lives of seafarers.

“There is no doubt the owners and operators have shown neglect in their treatment of their crew over a number of years,” said Trowsdale.

“However, I have little confidence that they can be persuaded to sort this situation out. In the meantime, the crew remains in great danger and our only hope is that the authorities at Dakar or higher up in the Senegalese government take the action needed,” he concluded.

Source: https://www.itfseafarers.org/en/news/seafarers-sitting-ducks-port-dakar-leaves-them-without-warning-lights

Last year, union ship inspectors recovered more than USD $37 million in unpaid wages owed to seafarers, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has revealed in figures published today.

The ITF’s 125 inspectors and coordinators completed 7,265 inspections in 2021 to support thousands of seafarers with wage claims and repatriation cases, despite Covid-19 restrictions preventing inspectors’ ability to board ships for much of the year.

ITF Inspectors get their name because they board and ‘inspect’ ships. They educate seafarers about their rights and support crew to enforce these rights. The officials cover more than 100 ports across 50 countries.

Inspectors are trained to look for exploitation, overwork – even for signs of forced labour and modern slavery. On many vessels, Inspectors have the right to examine wage accounts, employment contracts, and to review recorded hours of work and rest.

“It’s not uncommon for crew to be paid the at the wrong rate by a shipowner, or less than the rate set out in the employment agreement covering the ship,” said Steve Trowsdale, the ITF’s Inspectorate Coordinator.

“Crew can generally work out when they’re being underpaid. And that’s when they contact us. ITF inspectors help seafarers recover what’s owed to them.”

Altogether, the ITF clawed back USD $37,591,331 in unpaid wages and entitlements from shipowners in 2021.

Trowsdale said the makeup of seafarers’ wage claims was changing: “Concerningly, we’re seeing a rise in the number of seafarers reporting non-payment of wages for periods of two months or longer, which actually meets the ILO’s definition of abandonment.”

“Seafarers might think it’s normal to go unpaid for a couple of months, waiting for a shipowner to sort out financing, but they need to be aware that non-payment can also be a sign that a shipowner is about to cut them loose and leave them abandoned.”

The ITF reported 85 cases of abandonment to the International Labour Organization (ILO) last year, an historic high. In many of those cases, abandoned crew had already been waiting on several weeks’ or months’ of unpaid wages – including those aboard the storm-hit MV Lidia.

ITF inspector based in Hong Kong, Jason Lam, helped eight Burmese seafarers who were crewing the MV Lidia recover almost USD $30,000 in unpaid wages after they ran aground in October 2021, thanks to a typhoon that left them close to shipwrecked. The shipowner refused to pay the two months’ wages he owed them, abandoning them and ruling out any assistance to get them home.

Weeks of campaigning by Lam on behalf of the seafarers had an impact, and on 2 November 2021, the crew flew home – full wages in hand.

Amidst crew change crisis, ITF inspectors got thousands of seafarers home

Trowsdale said Inspectors did not let Covid-19 barriers stop them from supporting seafarers in need, instead adapting and finding new ways of working.

“I’m extremely proud of the work of our inspectors have done to support seafarers in the last year, often working in the face of incredibly difficult circumstances,” he said. “It’s always been incredibly important for our team to be able to physically get to seafarers – to board ships and educate crew on their rights. So, when Covid-19 restrictions presented a challenge to inspectors to board vessels, there was a real question: ‘What will happen to the seafarers who need us?’”

As the crew change crisis worsened in early 2021, a flood of requests filled the ITF’s inboxes from crew desperate to sign off and get home. Covid-related border restrictions were the underlying reason for the crew change crisis, which impacted an estimated 400,000 seafarers at the worst point of the crisis. But on some ships, other more sinister factors were at play in keeping crew from their families.

“There is evidence that some shipowners were using Covid-19 as an excuse to keep seafarers working beyond their initial contracts and in complete violation of those seafarers’ human and labour rights,” said Trowsdale. “Thankfully, our team was wise to what was going on and despite everything we got thousands of seafarers home.”

“Keeping crew onboard while pretending their hands were tied may have saved those employers a few dollars in flight fares, but in today’s society that kind of conduct gets noticed. There are no shadows to hide in anymore when it comes to global supply chain accountability,” he said.

Source: https://www.itfseafarers.org/en/news/itf-inspectors-recover-usd376m-unpaid-wages-seafarers-despite-covid-restrictions