INTERCARGO joins the international shipping community in celebrating the Day of the Seafarer on June 25, 2018 under the theme of Seafarers’ well being, recognizing the unique contribution made by seafarers from all over the world to international seaborne trade, the world economy and society as a whole.
The Chairman of INTERCARGO Mr J. Platsidakis stressed the value that the Members of our Association put on our Seamen and the many responsibilities entrusted to so few of them. Seafarers are our most important and “valuable assets”. Seafarers are and deserve to be in the center of our attention, as INTERCARGO strives for safer and higher quality dry bulk shipping.
Promoting and ensuring seafarer’s well being is a core value of INTERCARGO and its members. INTERCARGO fully recognizes that crew is the most important aspect of a ship’s operational excellence, while also that many other factors affect their well being beyond the control of shipowners, such as maritime corruption when ships visit ports in certain areas, unreasonable amount of paperwork caused by the introduction of regional requirements, denial of shore access for relaxation in ports after voyage and excessive visa controls to disembark and join ships, prolonging the time spent on board despite the readiness of relief crew and the Maritime Labor Convention. Crew have to apply for visa in advance for many countries and the visa often gets invalid with the changing ships port schedule affecting crew relief and morale.
INTERCARGO has encouraged its members to consider special actions and show our appreciation to seafarers and their families. INTERCARGO has requested its members to engage with their seafarers to voice their concerns, in order to assist the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in tackling holistically Seafarers’ well being issues and treating seafarers with compassion by the various stakeholders in the shipping industry.
INTERCARGO supports the IMO campaign seeking to highlight and showcase best practices and good examples. This will also, inevitably, bring forward areas of concern and examples of shortcomings when addressing the issue of Seafarers' well being.