Representatives of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) boarded the Ever Given in the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal on Sunday for a welfare inspection of its crew.
The health and welfare investigation comes as the ship remains anchored in the Suez Canal while the canal authorities continue due to a $ 916 million compensation claim. The Ever Given has been at anchor in the Great Bitter Lake since the ship was propelled on March 29.
The ITF reports that the crew is in a good mood, has enough provision and is aware of payment.
“We are pleased to inform the world that the crew of the Ever Given is in a good mood and doing well. The crew was delighted with the views of the Egyptian trade union officials of the ITF, who greeted them and expressed the solidarity of the global seafaring family, “said Mohamed Arrachedi, coordinator of the Arab World and Iran network.
‘The crew is understandably sensitive at the moment, as they are waiting to see what will happen to arguments between authorities and other parties. They are eager to sail, or know that they will be able to go home and see their families if the ship cannot leave Egypt soon. “They are relieved to know that the ITF is on their side,” Arrachedi said.
The ITF also reported that no seafarers’ wages or contract violations were found, and that all crew wages had received their wages for March. The crew also had ample food supplies and provided devices for the crew to connect to the internet.
“We had contact with the crew and so far there were no welfare issues. We continue to monitor the situation and the crew knows that we are available to support where needed, ”said Arrachedi.
The seafarers on board are represented by the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI). The ship is said to have 25 crew members, although the Suez Canal Authority reported last week that two crew members had been allowed to return home for ‘urgent’ personal matters.
“We call on the Egyptian authorities to make it clear that all 25 crew members allowed will be allowed to leave after the normal conclusion of their contracts,” said Abdulgani Y Serang, general secretary of NUSI. “We can not have a situation where the crew is effectively held hostage as financial negotiations between the parties are not going on.”
ITF’s chairman of the seafarers’ division, David Heindel, emphasized the situation of seafarers in the past year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘First, the pandemic and then the change in the crew crisis turned the lives of sailors, especially when governments introduced travel and border cover. “Some seafarers have been stuck for more than a year longer than their initial contracts to work on the same ships, ” Heindel said.
“We have to remember that it was seafarers who had the world through Covid’s worst health and economic crises. “Many of the seafarers will rightly feel quite angry if, after all their sacrifice, their profession is unfairly linked to an event that is clearly beyond their control,” Heindel added.
“It’s time to treat seafarers as key workers with the respect they deserve – and we can start by getting every crew member from the Ever Given home to their families after their respective contracts,” he said.