Group rejects plan to ban Pinoy seamen in pirate-prone areas

MANILA, Philippines - Most if not all of Filipino seafarers could become jobless if the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) pushes through with its plan to disallow seamen from boarding ships passing through pirate-prone areas, a group of seamen said on Tuesday.

"To ban Filipino seafarers in certain pirate-prone seas is like telling the ship to avoid the water,"said Nelson Ramirez, president of the United Filipino Seafarers (UFS), in reaction to the DFA's proposal.

“That’s impossible. Every ship that goes to the Middle East or Africa would have to pass through the Gulf of Aden. Where would the ships go then?" Ramirez told GMANews.TV in an interview.

Ramirez said such a policy would force seafarers to go underground and seek illegal means to be deployed overseas. He also said that it would affect the global supply of seafarers which is currently experiencing a shortage of 35,000 ship officers.

“No Filipino seafarer would sign any contract at all. Ship owners too may not hire Filipinos," he added.

Crescente Relacion, executive director of the DFA office of the undersecretary for migrant workers' affairs said there are roughly 350,000 Filipino seafarers deployed all over the world. The global shipping industry’s dependency on Philippine overseas labor makes Filipino seafarers more prone to abduction than any other race in the world.

“It is true that Filipino seafarers are at risk since one-third of the ship manning requirement of the world is supplied by Filipinos," Relacion told GMANews.TV.

The DFA made the proposal amid the series of hijacking incidents in the Gulf of Aden that victimized at least 40 Filipino seafarers last week. According to the DFA, a total of 54 Filipino seafarers have been abducted in Somali waters since July this year.

The Gulf of Aden, an important waterway for shipping, is within the Arabian Sea. It is between Yemen on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. It connects with the Red Sea through the Bab el Mandeb strait in the northwest.

About 11 percent of the world’s petroleum transported by ships passes through the Gulf of Aden on its way to the Suez Canal or to regional refineries.

Ramirez said that aside from training all seafarers to combat hijacking scenarios, ship owners also need to actively participate in safeguarding the welfare of their crew and ship.

“Ship owners have to force the United Nations to patrol these areas that are prone to piracy," Ramirez said. “Perhaps, it wouldn’t hurt the ship owners to shoulder some of the expenses in patrolling the seas."

Relacion said the DFA had been coordinating with the Somalian government to heighten the security of their waters following the upsurge of hijacking and piracy.

“But we have to understand, there is no central government in Somalia. The divided states are ruled by different groups. They can only do so much in upholding their security," Relacion said. - GMANews.TV

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