Life is hard enough for seafarers without other people making it harder. Alas, there is no shortage of individuals, often including one’s kith and kin, who would take advantage of this group of workers. Ironically, some institutions and regulations are the very source of the exploitation and the suffering. The following is a list of things many seafarers have to put up with as they struggle to build a better future for themselves and their families.
1 Unending mandatory training and certification
2 Refusal of the International Maritime Organization to provide free access to the full texts of the STCW and other IMO conventions
3 High cost of training courses
4 Substandard or unscrupulous training centres
5 Unholy alliance between training centres and crewing managers
6 Instructors who can’t speak proper English
7 Too few shipboard apprecentice slots
8 The flunkey system (serving as unpaid office workers/servants for manning agencies and seafarer unions)
9 Manning agents who manipulate the foreign exchange rate to steal from seafarers’ remittances
10 Crewing managers who ask for money or gifts
11 Favouritism in the hiring of crews
12 Red tape in the maritime bureaucracy
13 Corrupt government employees
14 Fixers
15 Tyrannical ship captains
16 Cultural differences/friction among multinational crews
17 Sexual abuse/gender discrimination on board
18 Performing cargo handling jobs that should be done by shoreside personnel
19 Too much paperwork for ship officers
20 Lack of proper safety appliances on board
21 Shipboard accidents
22 Inadequate food and accommodations on board
23 Poor or no wifi connection at sea
24 Restrictions on shore leave
25 Non-payment or delayed release of wages and overtime pay
26 Depression at sea
27 Difficulty of securing health or disability benefits
28 Greedy maritime lawyers
29 Loan sharks
30 Unions that collect membership dues without giving tangible benefits to seafarers
31 Families who squander money sent home by the seafarer
32 Relatives who ask for money
33 A cheating wife (or husband)
34 Women who are just after one’s money
35 Loss of friends and the respect of society when a seafarer has become impoverished
Dancing sailors, c.1918, by Charles Demuth (American, 1883–1935)
~ Barista Uno
