Here's the text of my article in The Telegraph on why we must support our seafarers, stuck at sea👇🏾
With seafarers under strain, a bureaucratic logjam risks becoming a humanitarian and trade crisis.
The British government has had a world-leading economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, yet its travel policy has come under pressure.
Aviation policy in particular has been debated in and outside the House of Commons with the fallout on business, tourism and impact on the economy of the 14 day quarantine rule. Indeed, coronavirus travel restrictions have meant that many industries have felt a much larger, sharper shock than others – and this is especially true for the maritime industry, the importance of which is often overlooked in the steady flow of global trade.
But export and imports are under threat with global trade facing another coronavirus crisis just as factories and economies are opening up. Without overdue crew changes, ships just have not and cannot sail and cargo will remain stuck in ports for months. The situation has become critical as economies are at a tipping point as we emerge out of lockdown.
About 80 per cent of world goods are carried by ships and without supply chains functioning, the spikes in prices, empty shelves in shops and mothballed factories will have an severe economic impact just as lockdown eases. Around 95 per cent of British imports and exports in goods are moved by sea, including 25 per cent of the UK’s energy supply and 48 per cent of the country’s food supplies.
Maritime is the facilitator of free trade and our market economy – the tool that powers the engine of prosperity. Yet it is this sector that needs urgent leadership from the global community to prevent a bureaucratic logjam becoming a humanitarian and trade crisis.
Over 200,000 seafarers are currently stuck at sea on freight ships to cruise ships. Covid-related travel restrictions have meant that crew changes have become simply impossible for many seafarers. While most are being paid, they are doing their jobs without the breaks they’re entitled to, and are often working 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Indeed, since March, many ports have refused to allow crew changes or shore leave, meaning that for some their contracts have been extended by several months, and some seafarers have been on board their vessels for over 15 months.
Even in a landlocked constituency such my own of Wealden, I have had emails sent in from the high seas reporting the levels of anguish on board merchant vessels. One constituent wrote in and told me that ships are now sailing the seas in “ safe and unseaworthy” conditions due to the “extreme mental and physical stress” of seafarers. He fears that soon an increasing number of ships taking the decision to suspend work on the basis of grave health and safety concerns – a decision that would send shockwaves through an already wounded global economy.
These are key workers. They are what keeps freight travelling around the world, and some of them haven’t had a days break in months. Most of us can only begin to imagine, then, how it must feel when many governments around the world simply turn a blind eye to their despair and exhaustion.
Frankly, for too many world leaders, it has been a case of "out of sight, out of mind.” I doubt, though, that they will be able to continue ignoring this crisis when our supply chains that bring food and medicine to our supermarket shelves begin to shut down.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have done a tremendous job putting forward a 12-step plan for safe crew changes. But what has become increasingly apparent over recent weeks is that there is a tragic lack of leadership and coordination on a global scale. As each country responds to COVID on its doorstep, the failure of international diplomacy and global institutions to push through crew changes has been shameful.
As a global maritime power, the UK has an opportunity to step up where other governments have failed and provide the leadership that seafarers desperately need. This is, after all, a human story. When I was the minister for maritime, I worked with the IMO to sign historic global agreements on greenhouse gas emissions. And with the IMO's headquarters here on our doorstep, we have a reputation on delivering global maritime commitments and the diplomatic network to fix this mess.
Indeed, with the Prime Minister’s Global Britain agenda and with London as the focus for international shipping, he is well placed to take such a lead. Lockdown cabin fever has a new meaning for us but spare a thought for mariners, who have spent months on tiny ship cabins.
Tomorrow is the Day of the Seafarer, and we must mark it with action rather and end this nightmare for key workers that have kept us fed and fuelled. Last week, we heard how the Foreign Office will be supercharged as we promote the best of British – what better way to lead from the front than to step up and promote our values on workers' rights for mariners? In doing so, we will not only renew our reputation as a beacon of hope for those who need us most, but we will also show the world that, as a global maritime power, post-Brexit Britain means business.
The original article can be accessed here.
