Sea Sunday: are seafarers missing the boat?
(Vatican Radio) Christian churches across the globe will be celebrating Sea Sunday July 13th. National Director of the Catholic Church’s Apostleship of the Sea in the U.K., Martin Foley, says the day is the main occasion in the year when we are invited to pray for seafarers, their families, and those who support them.
Listen to Tracey McClure’s extended interview with Martin Foley:
“It’s a wonderful occasion to take time out also to give thanks to God for seafarers and for all they do for us,” adds Foley. Few people realize how many seafarers risk their lives to bring us the food and goods we enjoy in the comfort of our homes, he notes. Recent amendments to the Maritime Labor Convention attempt to increase protection of seafarers’ rights in cases of ship abandonment, death or injury.
The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Maritime Labor Convention came into effect on August 20th, 2013. To date, 61 ILO member states representing more than 80 percent of the world’s global shipping tonnage have ratified the Convention. But Foley remains skeptical that it carries the necessary punch to effectively improve the lives and safety of seafarers.
In cases where a merchant ship is abandoned for precarious conditions or failure to pay duties, Foley explains, seafarers can remain stranded for months in a foreign country with no wages, no place to live, no healthcare and no way to get home. In these cases, volunteers and staff of the Apostleship of the Sea and similar organizations will often be the ones who provide the necessary help.
“Whilst they’re in that terrible position, neither knowing when they’re going to be paid or when they’re going to go home, or when they’re next going to sail, it’s organizations like the Apostleship of the Sea that step in to provide them with the support that they so desperately need,” Foley explains. “We had a case in England earlier this year – towards the end of last year – with a ship on the Tyne where the gaps, the weaknesses in the Maritime Labor Convention became evident to us and to the union involved so I feel there is still plenty of work to be done in ensuring that the Maritime Labor Convention does what it purports to do. It is early days, so let’s not be too downcast, but there is plenty of work to be done. Just because it is now enshrined in law and it’s enforceable across the globe, does not mean it’s a job done. There’s plenty more to do.”
click here to go to the Apostleship of the Sea's U.K. website
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