Posted on 01/30/2025 4:46:57 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
More ships than ever are being abandoned around the world by their owners, according to the United Nations’ labor and maritime organizations, leaving thousands of workers stuck on board without pay or the means to travel home to their families.
Cases have doubled in the past three years, impacting more than 3,000 seafarers across some 230 ships in 2024, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.N. data. Last year’s figures could rise even further given the time that can elapse before vulnerable, frustrated workers reach out to report their plight.
By international guidelines, workers are considered abandoned if shipowners fail to pay two or more months of wages, provide basic supplies or otherwise stop communicating with the crew.
“The only leverage seafarers have sometimes is to stay on a vessel until they get paid,” said Helen Meldrum, a ship inspector with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which advocates for ship workers’ rights.
A sailor gives a tour of the deteriorating conditions on board the Sister 12, the cargo ship where he has worked for more than a year without pay. (ITF)
It’s a phenomenon rarely visible from shore, and one hitting hardest the smaller shipping companies servicing less profitable trade routes. Many crews reporting a lack of pay are on corroded ships built decades ago. The top countries for cases last year were the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The worst cases have seen entire crews suffering weeks without adequate food or fresh water, or living on dark ships without electricity. Some workers languish on board for years, such as Abdul Nasser Saleh, whom the Associated Press profiled last year in a story exploring abandonment in U.S. ports and abroad.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Maybe we can house all the illegals on the ships.
Suppose they use those ships to take themselves to shore?
https://urbexunderground.com/abandoned-ships-around-the-world/
21 Abandoned Ships Around The World You Can ACTUALLY Visit
Maybe we can claim them. They gotta be worth something even scrap.
Who needs a dock anyway?
Yo…. Ho!
Allllll hands,
Hoist the colors high…
Ok lads, you were just gifted a ship
The top countries for cases last year were the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
::::
All mohammedan, right?
With no cargo, fuel or driver.
The top countries for cases last year were the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
......
Friends Shipping, which has offices in Turkey and Dubai, has a pattern of abandonment linked to its fleet. Nineteen of the 22 ships listed on its website have been named in abandonment cases, according to U.N. data, though some of those ships may have since been sold. The company boasts a slogan of “We Make the World Smaller.”
“The only leverage seafarers have sometimes is to stay on a vessel until they get paid,” said Helen Meldrum, a ship inspector with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which advocates for ship workers’ rights.
We pay off the sailors and send them home. Couldn’t cost that much. Then load the ship up with illegals of a given country, Columbia say, and then have a skeleton Navy crew man the ship and have a second Navy ship escort it to Columbian waters. Drop anchor, Navy crew disembarks to the destroyer and sails away. Leave them with a 30 day supply of food and water and tell Columbia to come and get their people.
This is so weird. I never heard of such a thing.
You have now. 🤡
I remember a crew abandoning a cruise ship and leaving the passengers stranded. That was a few years ago.
you only need a dock if you plan on leaving again.. otherwise run um aground where ever you want to get off.
It’s not as if you would suffer any legal repercussions for deliberately running a cargo ship aground in a populated area.
Well matey, that’s how it is when you’re a pirate. Elect a Captain, go get some fuel, start running cargo that nobody wants you to to carry. drugs, people, contraband, sanctioned cargo etc.
Do I have to solve every problem?
“I remember a crew abandoning a cruise ship”
That would be OK as long as the kitchen crew would stick around.
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