Too little, too late

I wrote in this space the other week about the plight of Filipino seafarers, particularly new merchant marine graduates who aspire to get jobs on board ships through local manning agencies.

Most of the candidates are forced into months—in many cases, even years—of forced servitude by the manning agencies. They are exploited mercilessly, made to function as unpaid and overworked messengers, janitors, drivers, and servants of employees of these manning agencies in exchange for the promise of employment.

I received a number of E-mails in response to that particular piece, most of them from seafarers themselves and their families. These E-mails essentially validated what I already wrote previously about the unfair and illegal practices of most of the shipping companies and manning agencies.

One email sender confirmed that the practice of requiring candidates for employment to render service as “utility personnel” is the standard in the industry. Apparently there are just too many candidates for employment; there are just too many Filipinos who aspire to become seafarers thus allowing shipping companies and manning agencies to get away with mass-scale exploitation. In many instances, one email sender said, candidates for employment have to beg manning officers just to put them in a waiting list to become utility personnel. In short, the shipping companies and manning agencies get away with bloody murder because there are just too many people who are not just willing, but in fact begging to be victimized. –Bong Austero, Manila Standard Today