Exclusive | Lost at sea: Thousands of shipping crew stranded as countries tighten borders

Between January and March, Artham Menon* has seen enough to last him a lifetime.

A crew member onboard an oil tanker, Menon was around 1,000km from Wuhan when coronavirus began to ravage the Chinese city. On January 4, his ship docked close to Qingdao port in the neighbouring Shandong province. It had 1 lakh tonnes of cargo to deliver but as the outbreak worsened, a lockdown was announced.

That was in January. Wuhan, from where the epidemic started, has since come back to life and restrictions are being eased. The lockdown ends on April 8 but not for Menon, who was to get off at Qingdao and take a flight home to India or head back to Singapore after exchanging cargo. He is still in China and hasn't seen his family for more than nine months.

Menon is not alone. Hundreds of thousands of seamen, most of them from India, the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Ukraine, and Russia, find themselves stuck in ships as countries tighten border controls to check the spread of the virus.

India is in the second week of the 21-days lockdown to check the spread of the highly contagious virus that causes respiratory distress. The country had shut doors to international travellers earlier. Domestic flights are grounded and so is the movement between states.

An industry professional who works with a ship management company in Mumbai confirmed that India, too, has sealed off seafarers. "The government has urged Indian seafarers working abroad either on Indian or foreign vessels not to sign off after finishing their contracts and return to India," he said, requesting anonymity. Only a few are exempted and that too on grounds of emergency.

Coronavirus LIVE updates

After it was reported in Wuhan, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread to at least 180 countries and territories. Globally, confirmed cases are inching close to 900,000-mark. At least, 43, 300 people have died.

Markets across the world have been crashing as concerns mount over the health of the global economy. The “worst crisis since World War 2” could lead to a never-seen-before recession, experts have warned.

Governments and central banks have come out with a raft of measures to alleviate the pain. India has announced a Rs 1.7-lakh crore relief package to ensure no citizen sleeps hungry when everyone is expected to stay indoors.

From banking, aviation to the health sector, the challenges facing the economy have been discussed threadbare. But there's one industry and its people who've found little mention.

The maritime industry

Today, pretty much everything we use is made in China or its neighbouring countries. In the last few years China has emerged as the world’s manufacturing hub.

But, who brings these finished goods or parts to your doorstep? It is ships--huge containers sailing with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of cargo-- cars, oil, wheat, laptops…you name it and they ship it. These are called supercarriers but even an average container ship can carry 100,000 tonnes of cargo. In comparison, an Airbus A320 can only carry 20 tonnes and that too with a multitude of restrictions.

From a supply chain point of view, 90% of the world trade is carried out through shipping.

While ships continue to sail, the coronavirus outbreak has taken a huge toll on men who have been forced to remain onboard for months on end--carrying goods from one end of the world to the other.

They may not be getting laid off or facing pay cuts like their aviation industry counterparts, but they are isolated, infected or not.

And the isolation facility isn't a room or a government-run centre, these men are stuck on ships, stranded for months in the middle of nowhere. Sailing, doing their job, without any sign of relief.

Why is this happening? 

No country wants to let "foreigners" step on its land as the pandemic rages. While governments talk about ensuring that trade continues, the people operating these vessels and making it possible are lost in the mix of closed borders.

They aren't treated like pilots. Evacuation and medical supplies are sent via air, so aviation staff has access to safety equipment.

The seafarers are being treated like second-class professionals. Countries are docking ships and exchanging cargo but the crew isn't allowed to step out. It means even crew swaps aren't possible.

How long is a pilot expected to keep fly at a stretch? Eight to ten hours? These mariners have been operating for months without stepping on land.

No country wants to take them in. What if an asymptomatic crew member is swapped, and then tests positive in the middle of an ocean? It puts the whole team at risk.

How have countries responded?

Countries like Singapore, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and even Sri Lanka are preventing the crew from leaving ships. It means that the teams that were on the high seas when the outbreak started are now responsible for the industry for an indefinite period.

Millions of seafarers are operating ships with expired contracts because there's nobody else to take their place. Another seafarer has been working for more than nine months and is stuck near Singapore on a bulk carrier.

"In view of the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the process of sign-off and repatriation of seafarers has been affected the world over due to travel restrictions imposed by various countries," director general of shipping (India) Amitabh Kumar said in a statement.

What's the ground situation?

"Right now, even if companies are willing to arrange replacements and provisions at high costs, it is becoming more and more difficult for stocks of spares, stores and provisions to reach onboard," said a senior-most engineer with an oil tanker on condition of anonymity.

He has been sailing for two months and counts himself lucky to have left New York just when the coronavirus was beginning its silent march on the city, now the epicentre of the outbreak in the US.

"Imagine if we had been there a fortnight later. Then there would have been no crew change. Suddenly we would have had sad, demotivated staff on board with no idea when they'll reach home” he said.

The tanker is now headed back to a port on the other side of the world. With a team of less than 24 personnel, the kind of isolation they are facing is unprecedented.

What does it mean for the global economy? 

The mood is mutinous. WhatsApp groups and forums are buzzing with ideas of an open mutiny to make the world take note of what they do for global trade and commerce.

One thing we all know is that the world is facing a pandemic but none of us know when it will end. It could take at least a couple of months for the situation to ease and that could be an optimistic estimate. How long are these men expected to stay on, nameless and unacknowledged? And what about their families—parents, spouses, children and siblings?

"As such, we have had to suspend all crew changes for an initial period up to April 30, 2020, except for emergencies. We are aware that this is a challenging period for our seafarers, and I ask them and their families for their understanding. We will provide whatever support we can, to our seafarers on board and at home," Ian Beveridge, CEO of Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said in a letter to employees.

When reached for a response, Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company, declined to comment.

A day's delay in reaching the destination costs a charter price that ranges from tens of thousands of dollars for a small vessel to hundreds of thousands for a larger one. If these men give up, their companies lose money and goods get stuck. In the end, it is the consumer—you and me—who pays more to make up for the supply gap.

At a time when everyone is worried about the global economy, the workforce that is vital to world trade has been abandoned in the middle of an ocean.

There are fatigued and angry. It is time governments around the world step in. Countries like India, China and Russia should be the first to find a solution and help these men.

Shipping is the lifeblood of port cities such as Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Rotterdam and Dubai, seamen's distress could deal another blow to the already shaky global economy. Now is the time to act.

(*name changed to protect identity)

The author writes on technology, aviation and mobility.