Seafarers still facing uncertain fate

THESE days we tend to pay attention to statistics. How many people caught Covid-19 yesterday, how many went to hospital? How many died? Were the figures down on the same day a week ago? In the past few months the focus has also been on how many people have been vaccinated and whether the link between cases reported and subsequent hospitalisations has been broken.

Here are some more statistics, quoted by International Maritime Organization (IMO) secretary-general Kitack Lim last week. He said that based on industry analysis, the numbers of seafarers requiring repatriation after finishing their contracts had declined - from a high of around 400,000 in September 2020 - to around 200,000 as of March 2021, with a similar number waiting to join ships.

Good news? Well, less bad news really. Mr Lim didn't give a breakdown of how far over contract those 200,000 seafarers are now. Anecdotally many are still months over contract. However, that is not to belittle the huge effort put in by IMO, industry organisations and some governments to address the crisis.