A couple of months back I wrote a post on merchant ships getting Hijacked by Somali Pirates and crew being kept Hostage for months. Now read this....... We are at Philadelphia on a ship chaterered by an American company to load and store and cool their cargo for their entire summer and discharge in winter (November). this means the ship stays in the port of Philadelphia till then, without going to any foreign port. Here the trouble begins. All my crew have valid American Crew Visas. now according to some strange American law the Airline or Ship crew can not stay for more than 29 days in US on Crew visas. The ship has to go foreign port and come back to reset the days again, which is too expensive an exercise for trade. so what happens. ALL OF US ARE DETAINED ON OUR SHIIP! We cannot step on land for the next 4 months and will have to stay confined on our ship. This is all the time, when we are working for the betterment of the American Economy and so that they can have enough Gas to keep their homes warm in Winters. Who has held us Hostage now? Pirates or the Customs and Border Protection force of USA, the most free country of the world, who preach the world on Human rights. The professionals here have become offenders by law and have to be paroled, in case some one has a medical emergency or just completes his contract to go home. What we do? Just keep doing our jobs dedicatedly and dont question. this is how seafarers are trained. Any country can treat you any way they like, because we seafarers have no Nationality and being global citizens (or Ocean Citizens) we have to keep carrying the cargo to their destination so that the world trade keeps rolling. Your newspapers reach you in the morning, Your Cars keep running, Your home heating is on in winters. We work behind the scenes endlessly without any rights, so the world is a better place to live in. International maritime organisation, the smallest wing of United Nations, thinks having a day in the year dedicated to seafarers is enough of recognition. Believe me stories like this happen all around the world, where the crew is held hostage by the Govt. Agencies and a seafarer does not complain. My salute to all of them! Proud to be a mariner!
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 01:16:58 +0000
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