Posted on 09/06/2002 5:50:44 AM PDT by Pern
They include American citizens, cleared by the U.S. Coast Guard. Many are Houston residents.
Yet when they dock at American ports and coastal refineries, they are being treated like security risks, unable to leave the confines of their tankers after days at sea.
They are also fed up, and on Thursday, seafarers, the Coast Guard and private industry met to discuss what can be done about what the seamen perceive as overzealous security implemented after the Sept. 11 attacks.
What's happening is that port and plant officials, fearful that terrorists could use their loading docks as entry points to carry out their plans, are prohibiting seamen, both foreign and domestic, from going ashore.
"They say they don't want anybody walking through the refineries because they think we are a terrorist and are going to blow somebody up," said Lou Marciello of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association. "But everyone has been cleared by the Coast Guard. It's kind of dumb."
The problem largely stems from extra security put in place by federal authorities that has been exacerbated by steps taken by private industry.
Seafarers complain that in some cases, they are virtually being held prisoner by terminal operators.
The situation is not confined to the Houston area, but rather is a problem that ports throughout the country are grappling with.
American merchant marines aren't the only ones upset with the security measures.
Some foreign seamen, who before Sept. 11 had some freedom of movement once they disembarked, are so upset with the new approach that they are refusing to work ships that dock in American ports.
Seafarer advocates both locally and nationally say decisions made by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to keep dozens of seafarers cooped up on docked ships in American ports each day seem unrelated to any real or apparent security threats.
Nationality seems to play a major role in the decisions, with Indonesians, Pakistanis and Filipinos often being denied shore leave, according to Karen Lai, the lay Catholic port chaplain in Galveston.
Intensified INS paranoia about seafarers going ashore since Sept. 11 is understandable but unjustified, Lai said.
"It's a knee-jerk reaction, and we need to get grip on it," Lai said. "It's punishing people who shouldn't be punished."
Houston INS spokeswoman Luisa Aquino said Thursday that no one from the agency's Houston office was available to comment on shore leave policies.
INS agents have inspected crew documents on more than 200 ships this year, she said. However, no records regarding how many seafarers were granted shore leave were available Thursday.
Whether any documents, including a visa, give a seafarer the right to shore leave is left to the discretion of individual INS agents who visit ships, Aquino said.
At some private industry terminals along the coast, virtually all access has been cut off for seafarers. Public telephones have been removed from some areas, and other docks have locked gates keep seafarers off the premises, said the Rev. Rivers Patout, chaplain of the Houston International Seafarers Center.
"As a result of the tragedy of 9/11, some of the restrictions that have come into being or are being enforced much more strictly have caused tremendous anger," Patout said. "The most onerous of all burdens is the denial of shore leave for whatever reason."
Crew members not only have been unable to communicate with family and friends or get necessary prescriptions filled upon entering the port but also actually have been confined aboard ship.
That happened earlier this year to Joe Neudecker, a military veteran who served in the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard for 20 years before becoming a merchant marine.
Neudecker, 47, of Friendswood, had been aboard a tanker for 75 days and was scheduled to go on vacation the next day when the incident at a Deer Park terminal occurred. The entire ship's crew was detained aboard ship, he said.
While the problem was resolved and the crew was able to leave the vessel the next day, he said the situation was frustrating. The crew had experienced similar crackdowns in other ports, he said.
"You can't detain U.S. citizens" when they have done nothing wrong, Neudecker said.
But they have been detained in many cases, said Don Reamer of the MEBA.
"We are not the problem, but they are treating us like we are," Reamer said.
The problem has become so pervasive that Patout brought the different parties together to discuss possible solutions. The Coast Guard, the INS, the Port of Houston and political leaders sent representatives.
The Houston/Galveston Navigation Safety Advisory Committee, which is composed of both public and private sector members, is expected to take the matter up later this month. The regional committee is appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
In Galveston alone this year, at least 22 ship crews have been barred from stepping ashore even to call their families on telephones they could see from the decks of their ships, Lai said.
Had a seafarer taken it upon himself to dash to one of the phones and been caught, he would have faced a $3,000 fine, Lai said.
Patout noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that occasional shore leave for merchant mariners is necessary.
"Our own Supreme Court ruled that denial of shore leave so severely affects the mental and physical state of seafarers that it is recognized as an elemental necessity," he said.
But since Sept. 11, U.S. immigration officials have denied even brief shore leave for entire crews in what seafarer advocates say are violations of rules that are followed around the world.
"The United States is the only country in the world that requires visas for seafarers to get shore leave," Doug Stevenson, attorney and director of the New York-based Center for Seafarers' Rights, said Thursday.
Since Sept. 11, U.S. immigration officials have denied shore leave even to some seafarers who had visas, say Stevenson and others who work with seafarers.
In the Houston area, Shell Oil has been lauded for maintaining strict security but also making sure seafarers are able to get off ship and onto the company's docks.
Shell said if the crew members are allowed off ship by authorities, they have to make prior contact with the company's dock officials to come ashore.
Shell makes available a van ride from the dock to the perimeter of its property 24 hours a day, said Dave McKinney, spokesman for both the Shell refinery and Shell chemical plant in Deer Park. Outside the company fence line, they can catch a cab or a previously arranged ride, he said.
"We recognize they have got family to call and have got things to do," he said.
When they come back, they must pass through security and show their identification, McKinney said. If they have the right clearance, they are given a ride back to the vessel where they can get back on board.
At no time are the crew members allowed to roam the dock unattended, he noted.
"We have had no problems, and they are very receptive to any kind of rules," McKinney said. "We kind of look at them as partners here."
Wayne Farthing of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, said Shell is "leading the way" in making it possible for seafarers to leave vessels to attend to personal business.
Some other facilities have "chosen to ignore the problem by locking everything down," Farthing said.
Patout said some restrictions that have been put in place are beyond any kind of local control. For example, if a seafarer lands in New York, there is an automatic restriction extended to other U.S. ports.
"If the seafarer is from the wrong country or if the dock facility authorities permit no one to exit the ship, the seafarer has become a prisoner aboard the ship," Patout said. "The question in my mind is, does this prevent terrorism or promote it?"
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