Magna carta for seafarers sought amid possible exodus during economic crisis

[snoop1130]

Filipino seafarers shows thumb up sign during the inaguarion of Seafarer center in Manila, 22 December 2006. Filippino seamen work on ships all over the world and the money they send back home is a major source of foreign exchnage in thie poverty-stricken country. AFP PHOTO/JOEL NITO

AFP / JOEL NITO

 

MANILA, Philippines — A coalition of overseas Filipino workers’ organizations and their families is calling on Filipino lawmakers to pass a law that will ensure seafarers' safety at sea, noting that the economic crisis may push more to pursue careers on the world's ships.

 

In 2021, the Philippines topped the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s list of the world’s largest source of seafarers. An estimated 700,000 Filipino seafarers are deployed on seagoing vessels and over a fourth of the global merchant shipping crew members are Filipinos.

 

"The current economic crisis has seen the peso plummeting to historical lows, chronic unemployment worsening, and that Ferdinand Marcos Jr. regime promoting labor export," Migrante International said in a statement on Thursday, World Maritime Day.

 

Full Story: https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/09/29/2213120/magna-carta-seafarers-sought-amid-possible-exodus-during-economic-crisis

 

-- © Copyright Philstar 2022-09-29