Singh is just one of roughly 150,000 seafarers who, by May 15, will be stuck at sea beyond what they’d agreed to, according to the International Chamber of Shipping, a ship owners’ trade association. That’s more than 12 percent of the 1.2 million workers at sea at any given moment, managing the global fleet of 65,000 ships, the vast majority of them the cargo carriers that move 90 percent of the world’s trade, by volume. That number will only grow as shuttered airlines and canceled flights keep these workers from finding their way home—and crucially, stop replacements from reaching their ships. In a typical month, about 100,000 seafarers either join or leave a ship. Now, that’s hardly happening. “We can’t physically do the crew changes,” says Guy Platten, the International Chamber of Shipping secretary general.
The seafaring life can be tough even in normal times. It requires long stretches away from home and hard work for companies that keep staffing lean. Piracy and kidnapping for ransom are ever-present threats. Studies link the resulting stress and isolation to high rates of depression and suicide. The pandemic has only ratcheted up the difficulty. Since the beginning of the year, crewing agencies and ship owners have largely extended the contracts of workers aboard, while fearing that mounting stress and fatigue will lead to onboard accidents.
For months, the shipping industry—including trade groups, crewing agencies, ship owners, unions, and seafarer welfare organizations—has been asking governments to classify seafarers as essential workers and to help them get to and from ports. Last week, the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, issued protocols for how to do that safely, including when to check seafarers for symptoms of Covid-19 and how to keep them protected as they move between their homes and ports around the world. The guidelines also suggest how to minimize the risk of landlubbers bringing Covid-19 aboard ships when they’re in port.
Some countries, including Japan, Canada, and the European Union nations, have deemed seafarers essential workers, but that’s not enough buy in. “We do need countries like India and the Philippines to open up,” Platten says. Both are home to many seafarers, and India has especially strict internal travel restrictions. “It’s not a tenable situation to leave it another month, another month, another month.”
For some, confusion around the travel lockdown has led to chaos. Manoj Joy, a retired seafarer who now runs the Sailors Helpline in Chennai, India, has been working with one sailor who signed off his ship in Valencia, Spain. He flew to London, only to find that the connecting flights to India were all canceled. He spent five days in the airport before his company figured the best move was to put him back to work, and flew him to Brazil. But there, the local port authority didn’t allow him to board his ship, which has since left, Joy says. “So now he is stuck in Brazil.”
Joy worries just as much about the seafarers at home, many of whom have been unable to work for months and are struggling to pay their bills. “They are in deep trouble,” Joy says. “Especially the youngsters,” many of whom come from poor families and haven’t built up savings.
