Seafarers’ charities are being barred from boarding ships in some ports around the world and the problem is getting worse, delegates at the Seafarers’ Welfare Conference during London International Shipping Week heard.
During panel discussions at “The S in ESG” conference held in Fishmongers’ Hall, Rev Canon Andrew Wright, Secretary General of the Mission to Seafarers, said: “We go on board and see people in [seafarer] centres in order to promote and take forward the welfare of seafarers. For us to be able to get to the ships is essential and in many ports of the world we are really beginning to have problems there.
“For example, in Costa Rica they say you can only come on board if you have the individual permission of the shipping company – and on an every-time basis. It is almost impossible to extract that.”
Shipping industry support is essential for charities to do their work, said Wright. “Port access is becoming a really critical issue, to be able to do what we want to do for the seafarers.”
Alex Walster, Head of ESG at Navigator Gas, said: “We have to start closing the loop between the ship owners and the charities. When we think about the things that the charities do, especially ship visitors and port chaplains, they have the trust of the seafarers.”
He suggested that the charities were often better placed to know what was going on onboard, or what the atmosphere was, and could ‘bring this back to the owner’.
Simon Grainge, CEO of ISWAN, said the biggest challenge is the fact that charities and the industry are ‘very different beasts’ – and how well do they understand each other? “The biggest challenge is understanding each other’s perspective, and for the industry to see the charities as valued partners.”
Seafarers often confide in a charity representative, telling them things they might never tell their employers, colleagues or even families, said Grainge. “We want to share that information with the industry, so that the industry can make the changes they need to make. But the industry is very complex. Who do we speak to most effectively? Who is going to listen to us?”
He highlighted the fact that charities might be delivering to shipping companies ‘difficult messages, that you are doing something wrong’, while still asking the same companies for funding. “I would say the industry must make friends with the charities – find out what we do.”
There was a particularly challenging question from the audience to the panel: “Do you think that having these charities in maritime makes it easy for shipping companies not to do things themselves?”
Charities should not be picking up the slack for rogue operators, said Grainge. “However, there are still many seafarers around the world who do get into crisis, and it isn’t necessarily to do with their work. Every charity should be working towards a time when they are not needed but it isn’t going to be in the next couple of years, that’s for certain.”
Wright said: “It is our experience that through the pandemic, the wellbeing issue went right to the top of the agenda, with board rooms discussing it. We have found that wellbeing is very high on the list of many people in shipping – and that is very welcome. It isn’t that the shipping industry doesn’t care – many have brought charities into discussions, and that is also very welcome.”