The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has blamed local officials, keen to look effective against drug trafficking, of targeting seafarers on trumped-up trafficking charges.
In a case this month, Turkish law enforcement officers found 176 kilograms of cocaine hidden across 161 packages inside a container aboard the MSC CAPUCINE R . The authorities arrested the master of the vessel and three deck officers at Iskenderun, Turkey and continue to hold them.
ITF Seafarers’ Section chair David Heindel said the ITF and shipping giant MSC were very concerned about the arrest, without evidence, of the crew.
“This is just the latest example of where seafarers are criminalised and treated poorly when there exists no evidence at all that they were involved in the alleged crimes. Once again, it seems authorities have decided to pin the smuggling offence on innocent seafarers,” said Heindel.
He said that unless there were hazardous materials within containers, crew typically had no knowledge of what was inside them. Containers are sealed before being loaded onto a vessel.
“We will be working with MSC and our partners and affiliates in the region to see the release of the crew. As it stands there is not a shred of evidence that justifies the suspension of their rights and liberty,” said Heindel.
In a similar case, in July 2019 the crew of the US-flagged bulk carrier UBC SAVANNAH were arrested in Mexico and held without charge or trial in poor conditions, when 225 kilograms of cocaine was found in the vessel’s cargo hold dispersed across 227 packages.
While most of the crew were released shortly after their arrest, Polish captain Andrzej Lasota was held until March 2021. Mexican authorities claimed that he had been negligent in ‘failing to be aware that the ship he commanded may have been carrying prohibitive substances’, whereas as soon as the packages were found Captain Lasota ordered an immediate halt to all cargo operations and notified relevant authorities.
“These high-profile cases are just the tip of the iceberg that the world gets a glimpse of through the press,” said Heindel.
