Guides For Shipping Companies To Support Seafarers Launch

23 November 2011

A programme launched in London in September today in Manila, Phlippines, released its first guides to shipping companies and manning agents on how to offer support to seafarers and families to help them cope with the physical and mental trauma caused by torture and abuse at the hands of pirates. Similarly dedicated guides for seafarers; chaplains and welfare workers; and trade unions will follow in early 2012.

Today’s first tranche of guides can be seen at www.mphrp.org/publication.php.

Pirates are routinely using extreme brutality and the threat of death against seafarers and their relatives. The Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) is intended to help those seafarers and their families cope with the resulting pain and anguish.

Funded by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) Seafarers’ Trust charity and TK Foundation, and chaired by Peter Swift, formerly MD of industry body INTERTANKO, the programme speaks for an alliance of ship owners, trade unions, managers, manning agents, insurers and welfare associations representing the entire shipping industry, from crews to owners (see http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/6451/region/1/section/0/order/1 for details of the programme’s launch and aims).

Its mission is to aid seafarers who have been or may be subject to pirate attack. Somali-based pirates now regularly treat hostage seafarers with extreme violence in order to put pressure on their families to expedite their ransom demands. This includes phoning family members and making the seafarer plead for his life while he is threatened with death and guns are fired, and filming the abuse and posting it online for relatives to see.

Peter Swift, MPHRP chair, explained: “Piracy is reaching an all-time high: in the number of incidents, in the vast ransoms demanded and, most of all, in the extreme violence used. The treatment meted out to the victims now frequently crosses the line from savagery into torture.

“The effects are potentially horrendous. For those, say, who successfully resisted capture but were nearly burnt alive in the room in which they barricaded themselves; for the brutalised hostages; and for those who daily put to sea in fear that it may at any time happen to them. And that’s not to forget the families, who are now firmly on the pirates’ target list.”

Roy Paul, of the ITF Seafarers’ Trust, and MPHRP project manager, added: ““We have been listening to shipping companies and manning agents who have been through the terrible experience of having their ships and crew held. Their main concern is to share what they have learnt with others. The main concern for the seafarers is how their families are informed and treated should this happen to them.”

He concluded: “How the seafarers are treated when they are released is important to the recovery that they can make from this horrific experience, so it’s important that shipping companies and manning agents get it right. In the guides we share the good practice that many companies have used when assisting their seafarers and families and we hope it will assist other companies to do the same.”

The MPHRP partner organisations are: BIMCO (The Baltic and International Maritime Council, ICMA (International Christian Maritime Association), ICSW (International Committee on Seafarers Welfare), IGP&I (International Group of P&I Clubs), IFSMA (International Federation of Shipmasters' Associations), IMB (International Maritime Bureau, IMEC (International Maritime Employers’ Committee), IMHA (International Maritime Health Association), Intercargo (International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners), InterManager (International Ship Managers' Association), INTERTANKO, IPTA (International Parcel Tankers Association), ISF (International Shipping Federation), ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation), IUMI (International Union of Marine Insurance) and SIGTTO (Society of International Gas Tankers & Terminal Operators Ltd).

The MPHRP Observers are: NATO Shipping Centre, the IMO (International Maritime Organization).

The MPHRP Funders are: The ITF Seafarers Trust, TK Foundation.

Programme Staff:

Programme Manager: Roy Paul

Assistant Manager: Toon Van de Sande

Programme Coordinator: Alex Wallace

Psychosocial Consultant: Dr Marion Gibson.

Psychiatrist Consultant: Dr Alastair Hull.

Programme Chairman: Dr Peter Swift.

ENDS

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