25 Giu June the 25th, 2020: the 10th Seafarer’s Day
Today is the 10th Seafarer’s Day.
Today is Seafarer’s Day. This year this is a particularly important occasion. We would like to remember, more than ever before, all the people who go to sea in difficult and often dangerous conditions and who have continued working in this particularly challenging period to ensure that the rest of us have access to food, medical supplies, fuel and raw materials.
The COVID-19 pandemic has really brought home the importance of maritime transportation to help the global community to mitigate the effects of the virus, contributing to make the general public more aware of the importance of the shipping sector.
Sadly however, it has also shown the deplorable attitudes of certain authorities in their treatment of seafarers through the denial of basic humanitarian considerations such as the ability to get home to their families and loved ones. This situation has, however bound the international maritime community even more closely together, through the United Nations, IMO, ILO, IAPH, ESPO.
Ports are the tangible infrastructures, vessels are the transportation tools, but seafarers are one of the immaterial human resources, like port workers. Without them, there would be no international trade, no global shipping industry – and no work for ship brokers and ship agents. Let us never forget that!