Registrar of the Certified Institute of Shipping of Nigeria (CISN) has said that many Nigerian seafarers are turning to piracy and robbery because they are allegedly being under-cut by the manning agents who recruit them for employment by terminal operators and shipping companies.
Okwuashi in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily noted that some of the vessels which the seafarers are recruited to work on are not standard vessels and alleged that many of the seafarers are not given good welfare packages.
Registrar of the Certified Institute of Shipping of Nigeria (CISN) has said that many Nigerian seafarers are turning to piracy and robbery because they are allegedly being under-cut by the manning agents who recruit them for employment by terminal operators and shipping companies.
Okwuashi in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily noted that some of the vessels which the seafarers are recruited to work on are not standard vessels and alleged that many of the seafarers are not given good welfare packages.
Okwuashi called on the apex maritime regulatory agency; Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to ensure proper monitoring of the activities of manning companies in order to make sure that they keep to their agreement with seafarers.
“There should be human face to the job and people should not be undercut, some of these seafarers are cheated by the manning companies, manning companies are agents that recruit these seafarers for the various shipping lines, the manning companies should be careful because they are also like spoilers, they are the ones under-cutting the seafarers”, he alleged.
“NIMASA should monitor them very well and ensure that contracts are kept, the amount of money or salaries agreed upon and other welfare packages that go with it are properly monitored, if not the issue of robbery and piracy onboard vessels will continue” he said.
According to him, many of the seafarers have resulted to helping themselves because what they are being paid in Nigeria is not commensurate with what their counterparts are getting abroad.
He noted that the seafarers keep selling facilities, gadgets, as well as their daily fish catch on the trawlers just to make money, and regretted that this is not good for shipping.
“The area of welfare for seafarers is very important, ship owners should try and make their vessels standard, you cannot put a seafarer onboard a ship that has left family, wife and children and the comfort of his home to be in a cabin that is not air conditioned, a cabin where he will be struggling with rats or drinking bad water onboard the ship, these are the areas of concern to IMO”, he added.
“Some of the discrepancies carried out onboard vessels are carried out by those who are under-cut and feels that there is nothing to compensate for all their struggles” he stressed.
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