RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

Right now, in the Yellow Sea, just off the coast of China, hundreds of vessels carrying tonnes of Australian coal are stranded, along with their crew. More than 1,000 sailors have been trapped on board their ships for months now because of one reason: Australia’s escalating trade war with China. Their situation brings to light the often hidden, dangerous and morally dubious world of international seafaring - particularly when it comes to the treatment of workers.

Today, writer for The Saturday Paper Anna Krien on the men trapped at sea, and the question of who is responsible for them?

**

RUBY:

Anna, could you start off by telling me how you came across this story?

ANNA:

Yeah, so I remember listening to Fran Kelly on ABC in November.

Archival Tape -- Fran Kelly

“The trade dispute with Beijing has deepened on another front, there are now more than 60 vessels carrying at least 700 millions dollars worth of Australian coal stranded off the Chinese coast…”

ANNA:

Talking about the Australian coal exports that weren't being unloaded in China.

Archival Tape -- Fran Kelly

“Australia is considering taking China to the WTO over the Barley tariffs. The trade minister confirmed that yesterday. What about over coal? What about this standoff? These stranded ships?”

ANNA:

So obviously, tension has been escalating between China and Australia and there's been this unofficial freeze on various Australian exports, obviously not just coal. Timber, lobster and all that kind of thing and it has always been unofficial though.

Archival Tape -- Fran Kelly

“So there's genuine humanitarian concerns for the welfare of these seafarers, what the Australian government is doing to try and get these ships docked and unloaded..”.

ANNA:

And she mentioned the seafarers on board the vessels. It's estimated to be about twelve hundred seafarers and between 60 and 70 vessels. It was mentioned every now and then with the reports about this coal, but it was never the focus, it was always this afterthought of the seafarers who happened to be stuck at sea.

RUBY:

And they're all they're all they're all ships that have come from Australia with Australian coal?

ANNA:

All Australian coal. And I just couldn't get the seafarers out of my mind. I kept wondering about what was going on with them. I mean, forget the coal, what's going on with these guys? And I started scanning various social media platforms, trying to find family members and found a few family members of seafarers who were on board The Jaganathan ship and The Anastasia ship. And they put me in contact with their family, the seafarers on board those ships. And so from then on, since December, I've been, you know, WhatsApp messaging with them, back and forth...saying good morning, checking in and just to see how they are and getting to know them.

RUBY:

Right, and so Anna when you started talking to these men who were stuck on the ships, what did you learn about them?

ANNA:

So, the crew on board basically consists of a crew on deck and then also an engineering crew as well and there's about 20 seafarers on a good ship that's been properly manned. The Anastasia vessel for example, there are 16 Indian seafarers, one Russian and one Filipino seafarer. And one of the men that I spoke to on The Anastasia, the first man I spoke to is in his 50s, not a high ranking seafarer, so doesn't have a huge amount of agency in his situation. But then from him, I got introduced to the second ranking officer, Gaurav Singh, who's been really vocal.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“So my name is Guarav Singh, I am a navigating officer on the vessel boat Anastasia. Right now i'm in my cabin. It's foggy outside, we cannot see anything, total foggy, total fog and the temperature outside is minus two degrees Celsius.”

ANNA:

And the owner of their ship, Mediterranean Shipping Company, has since told them to stop talking to me. But Gaurav Singh hasn't. He wants to go home.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“Even my marriage was scheduled in October but that has been cancelled now. My mother, most of the time I'm talking to my mother and she's always crying only.”

RUBY:

And so what did he say to you about when it first became clear that things were starting to go wrong?

ANNA:

Right. So they're anchored in August alongside many, many other vessels, also carrying Australian coal.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“After arriving in China, we have been told by the Chinese agent that there will be an anchorage of about one week and after that you can offload your cargo”

ANNA:

Even arriving at a port. They did not know what was coming. They waited to be given a berth, to dock and start discharging, which is unloading the cargo. And it didn't happen. That instruction never came.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“And we were waiting for one week. Then after that, he was just delaying and giving fake dates.”

ANNA:

And I don't think it really dawned on them until maybe a month or two months had passed, that this was really a situation that may not have an end.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“One month passed, two months passed, and we were hearing from the media and we were reading some articles that there has been some issue going on between China and Australia and because of these tensions, we have been stuck here.”

ANNA:

So they were still being told, they had to wait around, eventually they’ll be discharged, they just had to wait. and that was seven months now.

RUBY:

Mmm, and so what has that seven months been like for them?

ANNA:

It's been quite horrible to hear from them in the sense that the mental states have deteriorated significantly. I guess it is the uncertainty, the sense of never knowing when you're going to get off your ship.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“Everybody is like a ghost on the ship, so most of them are just sitting inside their cabin and thinking about the worst things in the world.”

ANNA:

Many of these men have long overstayed their contracts. The Maritime Labour Convention states that seafarers’ tour of duty should be capped at 11 months. These men are looking at 20 months, 21 months on the sea with no end in sight.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“We have lost all hope.They are just saying that it will be soon from the last six months, we are hearing the same thing, that it will be soon. Now, we're actually irritated with this word, soon.”

ANNA:

There's been reports of captains actually having to pull out teeth of their crew members because there's no medical assistance. On The Anastasia, just last week, one of those crewmen fell and fractured his wrist. There's been no help.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“Here, most of the crew. They are aged between 50 to 60 years, and some of them are senior citizens. They are having different medical issues. Different mental issues. Some of them lost their mothers, those their relatives, their loved ones, but still they don’t go home.”

ANNA:

So on The Anastasia for men have been on suicide watch.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“So this is the mental state of our crew here on board”

ANNA:

So it's a really deteriorating situation. And they've been sort of somewhat in a bell jar where no one's listening to them. They feel like they're being punished for something that they've got no hand in. That they have absolutely no role or responsibility or even any agency in. They're being punished for a trade stoush between two countries to which they do not even belong. They just happen to have blacklisted coal in the belly of their ship.

RUBY:

And, so who is responsible for the welfare of these men, Anna?

ANNA:

Ah, it's the million dollar question.

RUBY:

We’ll be back after this.

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RUBY:

Anna, we're talking about the hundreds of men who are trapped on ships in Chinese ports. They've been there for months getting increasingly desperate about the situation that they’re in. And there is this question - as you say, the million dollar question - about who’s responsible for this is. You’ve been looking into this for months now - so where have you got to? Who is responsible for their welfare right now?

ANNA:

All right. So, I mean, that's the question that I asked myself when I first started digging into this.

Archival Tape -- Anna Krien

“Hi my name is Anna Krien, I’m a journalist based in Melbourne.”

ANNA:

And it turns out nothing is simple in the maritime industry.

Archival Tape -- Anna Krien

“I’ve actually sent a few emails and a few enquiries already”

ANNA:

These incredible murky, opaque contracts where you have the owner of the ship. Who might be based in one country.

Archival Tape -- Anna Krien

“I’m just writing a story about the men who are stuck on The Anastasia ship”

ANNA:

But then they might register that ship in another country, say Panama, for example,

Archival Tape -- Anna Krien

“I’ve left a few messages in the Hong Kong office as well as the Australian office and haven’t had a response.”

ANNA:

Then there's the vessel operator who then hires a charterer and the charterer that might then hire another charterer who hires a voyage charterer.

Archival Tape -- Anna Krien

“Would you be able to give me an email or a name of someone I can contact.”

ANNA:

So I've spoken to, say, the vessel ship owner and they've said that they were really concerned, but it's not actually their responsibility. You contact the sub-sub-charterer. They're not really that concerned and it's not their responsibility. You contact the receiver of the goods in China. They won't comment. You contact the company that owns the Australian coal, they've already sold the coal, apparently. So it's not their problem. When you come down to it, no one's responsible for the crew's welfare. It's no one's problem.

RUBY:

Right so there’s this complex network of companies involved - and that complexity means that none of them have to actually take responsibility for the welfare of the sailors stuck who are in China. Is this the way things typically work in the shipping industry?

ANNA:

It's a huge problem and I had no idea about it. And I think the pandemic has really shone a light onto the situation that's been festering for decades. At the moment, because of the pandemic, you're looking at 400,000 seafarers who are stuck at sea long past their contracts, who won't be allowed off various ports because of fear that they may have the virus or the crew replacing them might have the virus. So it's complicated a situation that's also given light to a situation that was already here in the first place. And in 2017, I discovered that there was actually an Australian Senate enquiry into ships who fly the flag, which is known as the flag of convenience.

So these are ships that are registered in Panama, the Bahamas, Marshall Islands. These are open ship registries which are well known for being sub standard when it comes to enforcing international maritime regulations. And It's just shocking, shocking reports of exploitation. Of recruiters actually getting seafarers to pay them for their jobs and then putting them onto ships with these flags of convenience and they have to work off their loan. And guess what? They never work off their loan. They're stuck on the ship for months and months and months. It's basically modern slavery. So it's this crazy Wild West situation which has been recommended by the enquiry in 2017. It was a recommendation that the entire industry needed to be looked at. And if we don't mind this in, if we don't start understanding that this is a serious situation, this is only going to get worse.

RUBY:

Mm and that Senate enquiry you mentioned that that's three coming on four years ago now. Has there been any sign since then that this is an issue that the Australian government wants to address?

ANNA:

No. And quite sadly, the British government convened a virtual summit last year, an international summit to engage with countries about getting these crews off their ships, getting them off safely and looking after them not just for their welfare, but also for the welfare of supply chains and for the sake of environmental hazards. Australia didn't even dial to that summit. Which is a shocking absence, I would say, considering 90 percent of our trade is done on the sea, seafarers are integral to that trade. And yet when it came to us just giving a damn about them, we weren't there. The public pressure isn't there. The scrutiny isn't there because it's so difficult to understand and to unpick and to find out who's who and who's responsible for who. It's quite easy to put your hands up in the air and say, that's got nothing to do with us, um, and I guess it's just in the ‘too hard’ basket.

RUBY:

Mm and these sailors - who have found themselves in the ‘too hard’ basket - are stuck in Chinese ports. Do we know when they might be able to disembark? Is there any end in sight for them?

ANNA:

So of the two ships that I've been in contact with, The Jaganathan and the Anastasia - absolutely wonderfully on January 10, at the start of this year, The Jaganathan than was given permission to divert to Japan for a crew change. So the men that I've been speaking to on that ship are on their way home, which is just wonderful, wonderful news and a real relief. Of course, that just sits, you know, the sort of more despairing light on the crews that are left behind. So in regards to The Anastasia, these guys are really struggling.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“Every day we are just waking up with the hope that something will come up, something positive will come up. But by the end of the day, everything goes in sorrow.”

ANNA:

There were quite a spirited bunch when I first started speaking to them in December. There was still quite a lot of hope and a lot of camaraderie. In the last eight weeks, I've seen that dwindle. And to sort of rub salt into the wound. They're watching ships come from Canada and Russia and South Africa unloading their coal and then floating away. They're not getting any medical help. They're being told that a doctor will come if it's an emergency, as if someone is dying. But they even know that that would take hours for that to come. So they're really scared that they don't know what the breaking point is going to be for them.

Archival Tape -- Guarav Singh

“People are losing hope. physically and mentally, we are totally exhausted. Just because of a trade issue, why are the seafarers suffering? Our families are worried. They are waiting for us. We are not on an alien planet, we are living in this world only. The world should listen to us.”

RUBY:

Anna, thank you so much for your time today.

ANNA:

Thanks for having me.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

The Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced nearly 6000 pharmacies across the countries will be invited to take part in the vaccine rollout program. The rollout is set to begin later this month.

And Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has approved attendance of between 25,000 and 30,000 fans a day to attend the Australian Open. The decision comes as the state recorded 24 days without a locally transmitted case of Covid-19.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See ya tomorrow.