RIGHT OF DISEMBARKATION FOR SEAFARERS IN WAR ZONES - 19 CYPRIOT-FLAGGED SHIPS IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ WITHOUT CYPRIOT SEAFARERS - Filenews 18/3
Seafarers who do not wish to travel to areas considered dangerous due to war have the right to disembark from the ships, said the General Secretary of OMEPEGE-SEK, Charalambos Avgousti, noting that the union's main concern is the safety of seafarers.
Mr. Avgousti noted that, according to the information they have, there are no Cypriot sailors stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. Nevertheless, there are seafarers covered by OMEPEGE-SEK contracts, who are safe, even though some of them were on board a ship that was hit.
In particular, he referred to the ship Star Gwyneth of the Greek interest company Star Bulk, which on March 11 was hit by a missile. "The ship was 50 nautical miles northwest of Dubai. The ship is damaged, it has a big hole, but the sailors are safe and have supplies," he said, noting that there were no reports of injuries and the ship has been removed from the dangerous area.
As he said, about 20 employees are on board. Star Bulk also has offices in Cyprus and therefore the employees on its ships are covered, through the international transport federation ITF, by OMEPEGE-SEK in Cyprus and PNO in Greece.
"We are in contact with the Shipping Deputy Ministry to see if there was anything that we had to deal with. Fortunately, it did not have Cypriot sailors," he said, noting that there are some Greeks.
In addition, he noted that the international federation ITF is participating in the two-day extraordinary meeting of the International Maritime Organization that started today, mainly raising the issues of the safety of seafarers in the Strait of Hormuz and throughout the region. "The safety of seafarers comes first. We have revised the policy and document on warlike zones (areas considered dangerous due to conflicts) and the entire Middle East region has been discussed and included," he said.
As he explained, this happened a few days after the war in Iran began. "Many wanted the Eastern Mediterranean to be included," he said, which in the end did not happen. "The positive thing is that we did not have any strikes on ships in the Eastern Mediterranean region, either near Cyprus or Israel. I think it will not be included," he said, underlining that if this were done there would be several difficulties and economic impact. "There is already an economic impact from the fact that ships do not pass through the Strait of Hormuz and to some extent through the Suez Canal," he said.
He noted, however, that it is possible, if the war continues for a long time, that "our own region" will join the zones.
Mr. Avgousti stressed that "our concern is that the seafarers are safe and those who do not want to travel to these areas have the right to get off the ships". As he explained, "since an area is designated as a war zone, sailors have the right not to be on a ship that will pass through it."
In any case, he noted that Cypriot ships do not usually pass through the area in such conditions, while adding that there are not many tankers of Cypriot interests in the area.
Regarding the 19 ships under the Cypriot flag announced by the Deputy Ministry of Shipping that they are stranded in the Straits, Mr. Avgousti said that from the information they have from the Deputy Ministry, they were not in danger and remain in the Straits. "They are safe, they were not in danger, they did not load. Some went to a safer place," he said.
CNA
