Human rights at sea: using animation to educate

THE overall living and working conditions for crew at sea are generally good and much better than they were 20 or 30 years ago. That needs to be said very clearly. Most shipping companies and, nowadays very importantly, ship managers treat their crews well.

That all said, there is undeniably a dark side to shipping. In fact, perhaps there are three dark sides. Though not always true, substandard vessels and poor treatment of crew often go together. That is where we find perhaps the most obvious dark side.

There is another place where exploitation and dangerous practices are all too common but rarely come into view. That is on fishing vessels. Then there is how seafarers are treated on occasions by the authorities in the port their ships call.