MARINA to shipping firms: Avoid sailing through conflict zones

MANILA, Philippines — To prevent more Filipino seafarers from being endangered, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) will appeal to shipping firms to prevent their ships from sailing in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The agency would “appeal to the international community in urging shipping lines to avoid passing through conflict zones such as the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, following several attacks by Houthi rebels,” MARINA said in a statement Friday.

According to MARINA administrator Sonia Malaluan, the agency has to “ensure we are not putting the lives of seafarers at risk” despite ships taking other routes that she said would be “costly to pass through another route that may take an additional 22 days to go around.”

She also said she has ordered MARINA’s regional offices to reissue all documents without any requirements or fees as a way of ensuring that seafarers recover from the trauma, so when they are ready to return to sea, they have the necessary credentials.

MARINA would also support a policy by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) that would grant Filipino seafarers the option to avoid boarding ships passing through high-risk areas or warzones.

The DMW previously said around 78 Filipinos “manifested their right to refuse” sailing through identified war-like areas, particularly the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to a report by The STAR last June 24.