Two seafarers are presumed drowned after an Indonesian container ship sank in the Java Sea on 2 September.
Meratus Banjar 2, a 7,761 dwt vessel owned and operated by Indonesia's Meratus Line, reportedly took water in its engine room at about 10.00 en route from Surabaya to Makassar, South Sulawesi.
The Indonesian Navy dispatched KRI Oswald Siahaan and KRI Pulau Rimau to assist in the search-and-rescue operation but two ships engineers, including a cadet, are believed to have been trapped in the engine room.
Navy rescue vessels and divers were unable to reach the vessel as it sank at a depth of 82 m.
No other casualties have been reported and 20 crew were evacuated to sister vessel Meratus Spirit 1.
Ships have been alerted to the danger of floating containers near the scene of the disaster, although no pollution or hazardous cargo have been reported.
Mobile phone photos of the ship as it went down have been published in the Indonesian press.
The loss of Meratus Banjar 2 is one of several recent maritime incidents in the region, according to coastguard data.
On 26 August, the Indonesian coastguard rescued 169 passengers from the MV Nusantara Kandas ferry near Tanjung Pinang, while one crew died on the same day when another vessel caught on fire off East Java.
Sonny Pattiselanno, secretary of the Indonesian Seafarers' Union, told IHS Maritime that shipowners often breach regulations on crew and ship safety.
"What's more, the harbour master doesn't always undertake comprehensive ship safety inspections," he said.
"And when there is a ship disaster, all too often it is the crew who are the victims and blamed - even criminalised."
Legal enforcement of ship safety is still poor and open to abuse, he added.
"Until now there has been no progress towards Indonesia ratifying the MLC [Maritime Labour Convention protecting seafarers' welfare]," said Pattiselanno.
Meanwhile, a joint Malaysian and Indonesian search-and-rescue operation is under way for 100 Indonesian workers missing at sea after a ferry capsized and sank in heavy swell off Sabak Berenam, Selangor, Malaysia, on 4 September.
To date 24 bodies had been recovered and 20 workers rescued, according to Merdeka Daily News.
The vessel was reported to have been overloaded.
Indonesian disaster centre statistics for 2013 listed 141 shipping sinkings, 47 ship fires, and 32 ship collisions among 450 maritime disasters for the year.
Sometimes the crew on these small to medium sized ships are treated like slaves and paid very poorly. Next time you are up a crane or doing Stevedore stuff have a thought for these poor souls.
Your Rights
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In this area you will find information about what your rights are, how to defend them and what the ITF is doing to protect them.
Please use the links below to view content in this section.
- What are my basic rights under ILO?
- What do I need to know before I board?
- What sort of job scams are there?
- What do I need to know about manning agents?
- What are ITF agreements?
- What should my wages be?
- How can I find information out about a ship?
- What are my legal rights?
- How do I stand up for my rights?
http://www.itfseafarers.org/index.cfm
Foreign sailors paid $2 per hour while Canadian crews remain jobless: union
A ship is docked at the Port of Montreal, Monday, April 13, 2015. (Ryan Remiorz/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The labour group, which represents unlicensed sailors in all of the country's coastal waters, has been firing warning shots for month over the growing refusal of shipping agents to hire Canadian crews -- something to which the federal government has allegedly has turned a blind eye.
The Canadian Press has learned the union intends to ask the Federal Court in Vancouver on Tuesday for a judicial review of the practice of issuing the foreign sailors temporary work permits.
The union points to the 60,000 ton, Greek-owned tanker Almathea, which was just in the Port of Montreal and licensed to be transporting crude oil in Canadian waters until Sept. 13.
Fourteen employment contracts, obtained by The Canadian Press, show hourly wages for non-licensed crew members range from as little as $2.13 to $8.80, depending upon the job and before overtime.
Seafarers union president Jim Given said such exploitation is common in international shipping, where companies will hire sailors from the Philippines, Indonesia or other poor countries for a tiny fraction of what Canadians would make.
"The Government of Canada is letting foreign ships replace thousands of qualified Canadian workers at a time when 25 per cent of our workforce is unemployed," said Given. "The law is very simple. They're giving work permits to foreign workers on ships in Canadian waters when the law says those jobs should go qualified Canadians first."
Canada Border Services Agency last year issued 142 exemptions to foreign ships so their crews could work legally in Canada, even though the union says shipping companies made no attempt to hire Canadian sailors. Another 59 C-10 exemptions have been granted so far this year.
It's scandalous and meant to improve the corporate bottom line of both oil companies and shippers, Given said in an interview Monday.
A request for comment was made to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander's office, but no one was immediately available.
Given said more than 800 of his members are currently looking for work and the temporary foreign worker exemptions are being abused.
"Those permits are intended for those who are going to open a company and employ people and there is some big economic benefit to Canada," said Given. "There is no economic benefit to Canada to this, other than allowing Suncor to put more money into their pocket."
The Harper government clamped down on the temporary foreign worker program earlier this year. It set a deadline of April 1st for low-skilled workers to either become permanent residents or leave the country.
It also overhauled the program, requiring some employers to provide a labour market impact assessment and demonstrate no Canadians were available before hiring foreigners. There are loopholes that allow international companies to bypass the assessment, but whether they apply to shipping companies is unclear.
At the time, Alexander cast the measures as "putting Canadians first."
The labour movement has made defeating the Conservatives an objective in the federal election and in some key ridings has encouraged strategic voting.
Given denied that the impending court challenge is politically motivated.
"I don't care who is elected next. There needs to be a maritime policy and there needs to be a policy on temporary foreign workers when it comes to seafarers," he said.
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