Filipino seafarers make up 25 per cent of crews worldwide. A few hundred have been evacuated and repatriated. The problem is also in the opposite direction: Ukrainians and Russians on boats abroad cannot return home or get paid.
Manila (AsiaNews) - The Russian invasion of Ukraine is also having an impact on the maritime sector: thousands of foreign sailors are stranded on board ships in Ukrainian ports; Ukrainian and Russian sailors abroad are unable to return home.
Data from Stella Maris Manila, the Scalabrinian missionaries' dormitory and training centre for seafarers, 49 of their sailors have been evacuated, 227 repatriated and 146 are stranded on board 27 vessels in 11 different ports in Ukraine. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs claims to have evacuated over 300 seafarers and to have brought home just over 170 so far.
Filipinos represent 25% of the world's seafarers, 1.9 million in total.
On 10 and 11 March, the United Nations International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convened an extraordinary meeting to assess the risks faced by vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Imo Secretary General Kitack Lim called for merchant shipping to be spared the violence: "Together with the Ukrainian people, ships, seafarers and port workers engaged in trade should not be caught up in this growing crisis. Shipping, and in particular seafarers, cannot be collateral victims of a wider political and military crisis, they must stay safe and be protected".
At least five ships have so far been hit by bombings, killing a sailor from Bangladesh.
The total number of foreign sailors stranded in Ukraine is estimated at around 1,000, on board more than 100 ships. The crews are not trained to command the vessels in wartime, which is why they remain stranded in ports with their cargoes.
The problem is also in the opposite direction: Russian and Ukrainian sailors make up 17% of the world's seafarers and at the moment about 60,000 are at sea or waiting to go home. But there are no flights and many of them cannot be paid because their bank accounts are blocked or under sanctions.
Most of the Russian and Ukrainian sailors are also senior officers, captains and mechanics, and it is not easy to find people to replace them to keep the supply chains going. To remedy the situation, shipowners are also offering double salaries to seafarers from the Philippines and Romania for sailings in the next two months, but much will depend on how the conflict in southern Ukraine, near Odessa and Mariupol, develops.
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