Our Church's Mission to Seafarers say there are few people who realise what seafarers have sacrificed to keep the world’s economy going during this year's pandemic – by continuing their hidden work in one of the most punishing environments on earth.

As reports of a new Covid case came out at Tauranga Port this week, the spotlight has fallen on the people in this worldwide industry that are too often pushed out of sight and out of mind, says Mission to Seafarers Director for Oceania, Rev Lance Lukin.

“With Covid, when we were all self-isolating in the comfort of our homes, thousands of people were still at work at sea – sacrificing being in their homes, or being connected with their family and friends, to bring us the essentials we needed: the medicine for our hospitals, petrol for our cars and food for our supermarket shelves.”

Rev Lance Lukin says that 99% of imports in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia depend on the 1.5 million seafarers who are working globally in perilous and lonely conditions at sea.

And in 2020, those conditions became a whole lot harder.

Rev Lance Lukin reports that until very recently, pandemic border restrictions had stopped MTS chaplains being able to advocate for two of the most basic rights owed to seafarers: the right to shore leave, and the right to be transported home after a maximum contract of nine months at sea.

“Globally, half a million crew have gone beyond the expiration of their contracts and can’t get home. Crews have been stuck on board ships for 12 to 14 months. During lockdowns, they couldn’t even get off the gangway.”

Meanwhile on board, social distancing rules have made life at sea even lonelier than usual.

If seafarers work with a reputable company, they are paid on time and have fair conditions on board – which means each 24 hours comprises: 8 hours work, 8 hours sleep, and 8 hours leisure time.

“Life at sea was already not only perilous, but also frightfully lonely. Many huge cargo ships have only 18 on their crew, which means six at work at a time,” said Rev Lance.

“That might be two on the bridge, two in the engine room, and two on deck. You could ostensibly work 8 hours and speak to nobody all day.”

So shore leave is essential for mental health – not only for a break from life on the water, but to contact people at home, as few companies will shoulder the expense of wifi on board.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, seafarers’ welfare groups have gained $295K in Government funding to try and mitigate the hopeless situation Covid limits have left crews in.

“We know that as of today around 500,000 people are stuck on ships after the end of their contracts. Many of them come from countries where Covid is out of control, so they are desperate for news.”

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Mission to Seafarers has used Government funds to deliver portable wifi units to the top of gangways, so that crew members can contact their loved ones while in port, even though they couldn’t get off their ships. 

But for some, this only intensified their sense of frustration and hopelessness, as families shared stories of lives threatened by the Covid crisis.

“They hear terrible stories from home.”

“Suicide rates on ships have gone up and now we are hearing reports of desperate crew members self-harming to get off ships.

“You might crush your hand in a piece of machinery, or have a fall – that way opting for a medical exit without the stigma of not getting another contract.”

Mission to Seafarers chaplains have also responded by making professional counselling services available around the clock. Their international “chat with a chaplain” service allows seafarers to connect with a chaplain from somewhere around the globe, 24 hours a day.

Lance says there’s been a big uptake of that service, and seafarers report it has been a lifeline. Any seafarer can talk with a chaplain in their own language, when they need it most.

“You might be in Port Chalmers using a wifi unit at midnight to talk to a chaplain in Manila.” said Lance.

“The chaplains are trusted too, especially when something goes wrong, because they are seen as indepedent, not answering to either the company, or any Government that the crew member may fear.”

Meanwhile, as the pandemic rages, the Mission’s chaplains still have their usual roles as advocates for seafarers whose employers reneg on paying them their meagre wages.

“Shipping is not a big money-making industry anymore, so companies save money by paying their staff very poorly – wages come out at around NZD .90 cents an hour.”

Lance says shipping companies hire people in countries where thousands need work – and don’t expect high rates of pay. So most seafarers come from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and from some Pacific Islands.

“Men will go into the shipping company’s centre in Manila and queue with hundreds or thousands of others for these jobs. Then they know that if they secure a job  – but complain about any of their conditions, a hundred others are ready to take their place. They need advocates who can be sensitive by helping them without causing them harm.”

Chaplains often assist crew members with technical matters, but in some cases people smuggling occurs at the hands of shipping companies, and even more often in the largely unpoliced fishing industry, where human rights abuses are rife.

Lance says that’s why Mission to Seafarers chaplains have to be at the top of their game to respond appropriately to the needs of those in their care.

“This is no easy ride. Our chaplains must be pastors, project managers, legal advocates, counsellors and tech supporters. They have to be on the lookout for trafficking and ill-treatment of workers, and very often following up on unpaid wages – which is common across the industry.”

In 2018, Mission to Seafarers chaplains working with the maritime unions coordinated legal advocacy that saw around $50 million in unpaid earnings finally reach people owed money for their work at sea.

One pandemic decision where Lance believes that many Governments have been unfair is in setting a double standard for crews arriving by air versus by sea.

During lockdown in Aotearoa New Zealand, no crew members could come off ships, and that stayed in place at Levels 3 and Level 2 with crews only gaining their first access to very limited shore leave in Level 1.

Part of that is the companies’ choices, he says.

“The ships are the most careful about avoiding infection. At sea there’s no doctors, no respirators, and no medicines to help deal with coronavirus if someone had it. The last thing they want is to have it on board where even one person unwell could place a risk on all of their lives.”

Still Lance is frustrated that Governments don’t treat seafarers more fairly.

“On the news during lockdown we still saw planes coming in every day, and we knew that their crews could have got on a plane in Doha one day, and got out in Auckland the next.”

But Lance says, those flight crews just left the airport for their accommodation.

“Yet at the same time, seafarers who had been on ships for weeks longer than any quarantine, could not even step onto the gangway.”

Lance says the sad thing is, the reason we don’t hear about the daily ship sinkings around the world, is the same insidious reason the flight crews get better treatment – “No Westerners aboard.”

“The pilots and flight attendants are much more likely to be middle-class white people, while seafarers are Indian, Pakistani, Filipino or Pacific Island working class people. There’s no doubt there an element of race and class in that blatant double standard.”

Another ministry the Mission offers around the world is van rides into cities, because often local taxi compies will try to exploit seafarers charging them in US dollars rather than local currency.

The Mission to Seafarers hope that the churches realise what a critically needed ministry ship visitors occupy. It is a space where chaplains have the opportunity to offer the love of Christ in work for justice and service for some of the world’s most essential, yet least cared for people.

“There’s a perception that we are having lovely cups of tea and selling them blocks of chocolate. Still, for people who spend weeks on end with nothing more than a room and basic food those things mean a lot.”

But Lance says that caring human contact is only the tip of the iceberg.

“This is a ministry caring for the last, the lost and the least right where they are, and bringing them not only kindness and hospitality, but advocating for their human rights in a world that happily looks the other way.” 

Right now, the Mission to Seafarers needs more volunteers to train for ship visiting ministries in Tauranga, Gisborne, Marsden Point, Napier and Nelson especially as Covid has lessened their ability to call on their volunteer force of older people.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the recent Government support means that two ports (Tauranga and Marsden Point) have two professional chaplaincy roles available. Those are paid roles for cutting edge ministry to people arriving by sea.

For more details on these two jobs, or to find out how to volunteer, contact Rev Lance Lukin at:

Lance.lukin@mtsmail.org

In Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia, the Anglican Mission to Seafarers works in conjunction with the Roman Catholic Apostleship of the Sea and the Sailor’s Society to facilitate seafarer welfare. The Anglican Mission to Seafarers operates in Aotearoa New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, The Solomon Islands and French Polynesia.