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For months on the road through the world’s oceans, and even at Christmas they cannot return home despite their holidays: hundreds of thousands of sailors are trapped due to the crown. Also in Hamburg.
By Andreas Hilmer, NDR
Sailor Kaumai Taneoua looks sadly into space. He cannot go with his family. He is trapped more than ten thousand kilometers from home. He found refuge in a youth hostel in Hamburg, together with more than 50 seafarers. An international community of destiny that is condemned to wait.
Kaumai has been sailing the oceans as a shipboard worker for years and is now on vacation. But due to the corona pandemic, he cannot return home. There are hardly any flights and his country of origin currently does not allow him to enter for fear of the virus. The sailor poses too great a risk to airlines and also to his home country, Kiribati, a small island nation in the South Pacific.
Hundreds of thousands are trapped
Experts estimate that around 400,000 seafarers worldwide are stagnant. In Singapore, Senegal, Rotterdam and Hamburg. Due to the complex protection measures of the crown, it often does not move forward or backward. Crews are difficult to change. And once you get off, you even see your job in jeopardy. “Who knows when I’ll be back on board,” Kaumai says with a shrug.
“It is difficult to organize crew changes on tankers and freighters in ports according to plan if we do not know how our boatmen can enter and leave the port,” says shipowner Frank Leonhardt in his office in the port of Hamburg. Look at the loading cranes and stir his coffee. It is a difficult time. Traditional shipping company Leonhardt & Blumenberg has been fighting with home countries and airlines for months to get seafarers to travel in some way. “It’s complex, everyone is afraid of Corona.”
Leonhardt’s smartphone rings and he is again discussing special permits and emergency accommodation for his sailors: who disembarks when, who stays, who takes over? In times of pandemic, international shipping has become a puzzle. And seafarers have a problem that is not their fault. When they came on board, the world still didn’t know Corona.
Shepherd’s warm coats
The sailor’s shepherd arrives at the youth hostel in the Horn district of Hamburg. Hours of consultation with a mask and on the disinfected table, a Christmas tree flashes next to it. Today a dozen sailors expect less divine blessings than concrete help. “It’s the simple sailors who have also made sure that we have Christmas presents on the shelves,” says sailor pastor Mathias Ristau, who now comes twice a week to help the stranded with organizational matters. “And now these poor guys can’t go home. Many are exhausted and not knowing how to go on, so far from home.”
He then distributes coats to the men of Micronesia, Tuvalu and Kiribati against the Hamburg drizzle. What’s left for the stranded: billiards, card games, soccer on the computer, and talking on the phone with loved ones in the South Pacific.
International organizations have long discussed how seafarers are allowed to travel. Their need has reached the United Nations; there are now two resolutions from the United Nations Labor Organization (ILO). All 187 member states should now grant seafarers the status of “key workers”. A first step towards being able to travel again soon as “systemically important workers”.
On the road for 18 months
Seaman Kaumai hears little about it. He is sitting in the window of the youth hostel and looking at pictures of his little son on the cell phone: palm trees, the beach and a boy singing with flowers in his hair. “He just turned one year old and I wasn’t there. I’ve been traveling for 18 months, I’m homesick, I’ve been gone too long.” And then it is wrapped in cloth, it is the flag of his homeland, Kiribati. After months at sea, she imagined her free time would be more enjoyable, warmer anyway, and most of all with her family.
“No one can come here for Corona”
Tony Aquino is also stuck in the port of Hamburg and yet he is different. He comes from the Philippines, his ship docked a few hours ago and he is not even allowed to disembark because of Corona. Not even to the nearby sailor’s mission “Duckdalben” for shopping and coffee. There, Chief Anke Wibel stands under a large Christmas tree and sorts out 200 gifts donated especially for seafarers: “We will have to take them directly to the ships this year because no one can come here because of Corona.”
The Association of German Shipowners (VDR) now wants to campaign for travel restrictions to be relaxed. 60,000 sailors work on German ships alone. “They should also preferably be vaccinated against Corona,” demands VDR president Alfred Hartmann.
Meanwhile, in the port of Hamburg, the helpers bring Christmas trees to the ships as donations and appreciate the hard work. The so-called firing of firs is an ancient Hanseatic tradition so as not to forget the sailors. “Thank you,” shouts a sailor from behind his protective crown mask. But I’d rather be home for Christmas.
