The military coup in Myanmar overnight has sent shockwaves through the Southeast Asian shipping community.
The army has ousted the Aung San Suu Kyi-led government and vowed to take charge for at least the next 12 months.
While the country’s ports remain open today, the main airport at Yangon is closed.
“Lots of crewing agents and shipmanagement companies are quaking over events in Yangon this morning. They all have offices and a presence there. With the total clampdown and the airport closed this will not help the crew change crisis,” a well placed source in Singapore’s maritime community told Splash on condition of anonymity.
Myanmar has a growing presence in terms of crewing, and today’s seagoing workforce numbers around 50,000.
Myanmar crewing agents are some of the worst in the world. They are easily more corrupt. If a Myanmar seafarer puts his hand up in, say, a Canadian port, to recover wages withheld by the shipowner and the crewing agents, he can never go back to Myanmar. The junta, who are equally corrupt, are involved in the crewing business.They are on the take, like any corrupt military anywhere. Having recovered lost wages a seaman must ship out of Bangkok from then on.
As far as Aung Sang Suu Chi is concerned, l and the West were fooled by her sanctimonious piety, which did not include the Rohynga people. She refused to speak for them. She should hand back her Nobel Prize.
I have hired Myanmar crew in my previous company and since been associated with a Myanmar Manning company for over five years and never experience or heard of such incidents. Although corruption does exist in the industry at all levels.
That said, I didn’t realise that Splash was a platform for individuals to make such accusations and post their political views!
Well Martin. You must live in a bubble. Over the past 40 years l have recorded, spoken for, and acted for a number of Myanmar seamen who have raised their hand to recover wages withheld by corrupt crewing agencies in Myanmar. They have told me precisely what l have said, that they cannot return to Myanmar because there will be retaliation by the junta, and cited Bangkok as one place where they are forced to seek sanctuary. As a competitor in the global Dutch auction for crews they are considered one of the cheapest and, due to the above, most vulnerable, and least likely to seek redress. Is that why you hired them? Crewing is like the Limbo dance…..how low can you go?
In 40 years I have never met an employer or crewing agent of the cheapest crews that l did not detest. Under the military junta, which has just clamped down again, such abuse will have a new lease on life. I fully understand the profit-driven mentality of shipowners searching for the cheapest and most malleable crews. Aren’t the Vietnamese cheaper now? Time to switch crewing agents, Martin.
It’s to Splash’s credit that it is open to humanitarian advocacy. Almost all shipping journals are closed to publicizing even the worst abuses, because they pander to the moneyed side of our industry. If you’d read my reaction to the latest rash of container losses, you’d already know Splash’s distinction in that regard.
No I don`t live in a bubble, and its an insult to suggest I hired crews because they were the cheapest. All my vessels had mixed crews and were hired and rehired based on their experience, ability and attention to safety. To give you an idea our crews were from India, Sri Lanker, Indonesia, Philippines, Kenya, Zanzibar and more. Your comments serve no purpose, If you know the Agents involved that’s fine, then name and shame. You are painting all Burmese seamen with the same brush and bent on denying them the opportunity to work and support their families. Having spent 13 years at sea and 32 years in management I would never consider dealing with a manning company that exploited is crews.
This is so much bluster. One reason for mixed crews, something the cruise ships are very familiar with, is to stop them combining and play them off one against a another. It is almost a written policy. Also, it helps with the bidding down of crew costs. You most certainly must be in a bubble if you have spent 32 years in management and don’t know any of this. Are you employing the crews directly, or through a manning agency? If the latter then you might be unaware of what Manning Agencies do for ship owners. I say might be, but l really don’t know how you have been in management for 32 years and know nothing about something that is known to everyone, and about which l wrote a Master’s dissertation, which is in every copy of Mission and ITF periodicals, and known to everyone on the side defending seafarers interests. I sat around a table with a certain cruise ship owner whose practice was to delay payment of wages until a certain seaman’s church organization threatened to picket the gangway, upon which he would go down to the ship with $2 million in a bag and distribute it. Such practices are rampant. I would love to cite chapter and verse, but l don’t have the money to defend myself from a bogus suit for slander. But you’re in a bubble, and know nothing about it, never heard a whisper in 32 years. Amazing!!!
From hereon l will just list cases of abuse of Burmese seafarers, and statements made by various international and national bodies regarding the fate of Burmese Seamen who are in trouble for complaining about abuse and non-payment of wages. Are you ready for this?
M.V.Angelic Faith case
It happened on 3 June 1993, on the Greek-flag Angelic Faith. (11) Myanmar seafarers received assistance from the ITF when their vessel docked in Dalrymple Bay, Queensland, Australia. Industrial action by the ITF-affiliated Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) resulted in a back-pay settlement of nearly US$ 100,000. The ITF reported later that Myanmar authorities threatened the crew with forcible repatriation to Myanmar and they have been effectively under house arrest so far.
Where are you, Martin? Next case……
M.V.”Trans Dignity”
The ITF states that on 29 September 1988 in Sundsvall, Sweden, (14) Myanmar seafarers working on board the Liberian-flag Trans Dignity contacted the ITF- affiliated Swedish Seamen’s Union (SSU), requesting their help with improving their working and living conditions on board the ship. A local official of the SSU went on board to listen to the crew’s complaints. The ship was technically covered by an ITF agreement, but Peter Rundqvist found evidence that the crew were not being paid in accordance with it.
A new agreement, which was signed on 1 December 1988, awarded a total of US$ 176,845 in back-pay to the Myanmar crew after the ship was boycotted for a period of six days. After that, quick punishments were imposed on these seafarers by SECD (Government body) declaring them as troublemakers, their passports seized as well as their seamen’s books.
Source: ITF (1995). The Trade Union Rights of Burmese Seafarers, p. 7
And again……..!
For a period in 2005-06, four ships owned by a Japanese company were trading with their vessels on the west coast of Canada, loading raw export logs. All of these ships were manned by Burmese crew and sailing under the flag of Myanmar.
On one of these ships, a young crew member named Hla Din became deathly ill. Because the company feared that crew might jump ship or make refugee claims in the U.S. or Canada, crew were not permitted shore leave. This young crew member, who was known by the captain and other crew to be sick, was not allowed to visit a doctor in either of its two ports of call along the American west coast. By the time the ship got to Vancouver, the man was gravely ill. He was still refused medical attention. Finally, the chief engineer — fearing for the worst – directly disobeyed the captain’s orders and carried the young man down the gangway in his arms, hopped into a taxi and spirited him to St. Paul’s Hospital. The man was diagnosed with kidney failure. Tests revealed that as a result of the failure to treatment an infection he had suffered, his kidneys were shutting down. Had he been treated earlier, he would have suffered no consequences, doctors said. In effect, this man was a victim of politics — and would be condemned to either death or a lifetime of dialysis. He knew that if he was returned to Myanmar, his fate was likely death. So he made a refugee claim from his hospital bed. It was left to our inspector to support his claim, and to file his claim for loss of profession.
The man was successful in his claim and was kept alive by the Canadian medical system.
Gentlemen; while I don’t want to weigh into this debate for an extended period I can say that we have dealt with numerous cases of exploitation of Burmese crew. It is both historic and continues to this day. Burmese seafarers are taken onboard because they are both great seafarers, very compliant and cheap. Burmese crewing agencies continue to export them for exploitations. Only six weeks ago we pulled two Burmese out of a PRC crew. They were suffering malnutrition, were onboard for 14 months and were being cheated by more than half their pay. The agency called the family to threaten them, they told the guys to stop requesting assistance. We did however complete the claim and got them repatriated. We told the shipowner to instruct the agency to not lay a hand on these guys. We told the company if anything happened to them we would go after the company. I have been dealing with these agencies for nearly three decades. They have always been in cahoots with the Burmese Generals and I suspect through the crony system that exists in that authoritarian regime that will continue. In my view, any shipowner or manager using Burmese crew better be very diligent or face scrutiny. Seafarers rights are human rights.
Brilliant! Says it all! No better authority. I rest my case.
And again……..!
For a period in 2005-06, four ships owned by a Japanese company were trading with their vessels on the west coast of Canada, loading raw export logs. All of these ships were manned by Burmese crew and sailing under the flag of Myanmar.
On one of these ships, a young crew member named Hla Din became deathly ill. Because the company feared that crew might jump ship or make refugee claims in the U.S. or Canada, crew were not permitted shore leave. This young crew member, who was known by the captain and other crew to be sick, was not allowed to visit a doctor in either of its two ports of call along the American west coast. By the time the ship got to Vancouver, the man was gravely ill. He was still refused medical attention. Finally, the chief engineer — fearing for the worst – directly disobeyed the captain’s orders and carried the young man down the gangway in his arms, hopped into a taxi and spirited him to St. Paul’s Hospital. The man was diagnosed with kidney failure. Tests revealed that as a result of the failure to treatment an infection he had suffered, his kidneys were shutting down. Had he been treated earlier, he would have suffered no consequences, doctors said. In effect, this man was a victim of politics — and would be condemned to either death or a lifetime of dialysis. He knew that if he was returned to Myanmar, his fate was likely death. So he made a refugee claim from his hospital bed. It was left to our inspector to support his claim, and to file his claim for loss of profession.
The man was successful in his claim and was kept alive by the Canadian medical system.