Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

The case of seafarers
Stories emerging from the maritime industry provide many examples of the
kinds of deception related to living and working conditions practised in the
Arab peninsula. Over the past few decades, shipowners have sought cheaper
sources of labour as part of a drive to reduce operating costs, and most crews
now come from developing countries. Agents recruit from a number of
different countries, including Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan
and the Philippines, as well as Egypt, Sudan and Syria. There are also
a number of seafarers from Ukraine working on ships in the region. The
majority of seafarers are men, although a few vessels are captained by women.
The contract duration for seafarers is usually six months, but is sometimes
extended to nine months. Fishermen, too, will sometimes spend months out
on the water. They tend to be less well protected than other ships’ crew, as
they operate on small and medium-sized boats that do not always leave from
the major ports where labour inspectors and trade union representatives are
present.
According to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), very
few seafarers have access to decent work in the Middle East. They suffer
from limited and delayed payment of wages, forced overtime and poor living
conditions. 229 In extreme cases, seafarers may be abandoned either at ports
of call or at sea, and, as the ITF global report explained, “at best abandoned
seafarers are subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, at worst
they find themselves in life-threatening working conditions with no means of
subsistence. In most cases of abandonment, crew members have not received
wages for months, sometimes years, and are effectively subject to forced
labour.” 230 These practices contravene international minimum standards,
which require the flag state of a commercial vessel to ensure that the human
and labour rights of its crew are respected. 231
The ITF official interviewed shared the particularly poignant example of a
case involving a Turkish-owned ship crewed by Turkish seafarers that had
arrived in Aqaba, Jordan, in 2010. The owner of the ship had gone bankrupt
and decided to abandon the ship and the workers on board. A seafarer was
229
Telephone interview with an official from the ITF, 30 Sep. 2012. The ITF is
a federation of more than 600 transport workers’ trade unions in 136 countries,
representing over 4.5 million workers. The ITF represents transport workers at
the global level and promotes their interests through global campaigning and
solidarity.
230
ITF: Out of sight, out of mind: Seafarers, fishers and human rights (London,
2006), p. 12.
231
The flag state of a commercial vessel is the state under whose laws the vessel is
registered or licensed. The flag state has the authority and responsibility to enforce
regulations over vessels registered under its flag, including those relating to inspection,
certification, and issuance of safety and pollution prevention documents.
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