While shipping companies profit from the Red Sea crisis, seafarers are paying the price.
When the Houthis of Yemen announced that they would target Israeli-linked international shipping in the Red Sea in November last year, few would have believed that the turmoil of their attacks would be continuing eight months on.
The Iran-backed Houthis have always been adamant that their attacks – which have targeted the ships of many nations – will continue until Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip ends. That is why the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) demands a solution which tackles the root cause of this problem head-on.
“All those who care about the lives of seafarers – or a global supply chain that keeps its workers safe – must call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Peace is the best way to end the attacks on ships in the Red Sea,” ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton said in February this year.
Outside of reaching peace in Israel and Palestine, there remains a simple and immediate solution to protect seafarers from a conflict not of their making: stop transiting the Red Sea. But while major companies may have stopped transiting the Red Sea, far too many ships still do – which means seafarers’ lives are being put at risk.
To date, there have been more than 70 attacks on ships by the Houthis since November, with two vessels sunk and one seized. The human cost includes three seafarers killed aboard the True Confidence in March, one killed on the Tutor in June, 17 crew from the Galaxy Leader seized in November and still being held hostage in Yemen eight months on, and 25 crew taken hostage when the MSC Aries was seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Straits of Hormuz in April.
But what is left largely unrecognised is the daily trauma faced by the many seafarers – and their families back home – who still embark on perilous journeys through the Red Sea, fearful that they will not return home to their loved ones unharmed.
The response from governments has included a mixture of international resolutions and statements from the UN, NATO and EU states, among others; US and UK attacks on Houthi soil in Yemen; the levying of sanctions; and the launch of the US-led and more than 20-country strong ‘Operation Prosperity’ maritime coalition. Yet, still, attacks on Red Sea shipping continue.
Since the start of this crisis, the ITF has worked tirelessly to protect seafarers. Notably, the ‘Warlike Operations Area’ in the Red Sea was expanded in April as a direct result of our demand made via the International Bargaining Forum, a group that brings together ship owners and unions to negotiate collective bargaining agreements.
This means that any seafarer covered by an ITF agreement – a total of nearly 360,000 seafarers worldwide on flag of convenience ships – have the contractual right to refuse to sail in the Area, alongside the right to request repatriation at the ship owner’s expense. And similar policies have now been adopted by governments, including the Philippines, one of the world’s largest suppliers of seafarers, and India.
But while these efforts give many seafarers a means to avoid the Red Sea, many are still confronted by their fundamental need to work – and, more often than not, send money back home to their families.
The ITF position on what needs to be done by governments, shipping companies and flag states is clear: Shipping companies must demonstrate their commitment to their seafarers by diverting their ships.
Flag states, which are responsible for assuring a safe working environment for seafarers on their vessels, must instruct companies to divert their ships.
Governments must strengthen naval forces protecting any merchant ships that do still transit and do much more to co-ordinate their efforts to protect seafarers sailing in or through the Area.
Flag of convenience states must not rely solely on US, UK, or European navies for protection.
As Lloyd’s List rightly noted on the International Maritime Organization’s Day of the Seafarer this year, “expressions of solidarity and condemnation don’t save lives. Actions do.”
Indeed, if we are to treat seafarers as the ‘key workers’ of the global economy that they truly are, no less than concerted, co-ordinated action to protect them will suffice.
If safe transit through the Red Sea cannot be guaranteed, companies have a duty to act: delivery windows are not worth seafarers’ lives, and civilian seafarers must not be put in the line of fire by transiting the Red Sea.
Steve Yandell is the Assistant Co-ordinator for Seafarers and Inland Navigation at the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
This article was first published here in The Sea magazine.
