'Appalling' conditions on Cork ship Lady Chiara

[Lysfoss]

The International Transport Federation has described as 'appalling' conditions aboard a ship which arrived at the Ringaskiddy ferryport at Cork harbour this morning.

The ITF inspector in Ireland, Ken Fleming, went aboard with SIPTU officials from Cork and said that there was such insufficient food that the union had to take members of the crew off to feed them in a local restaurant.

Port workers have agreed to discharge the cargo of molasses aboard provided that the ship is properly provisioned for the crew and that wage and payment problems aboard are resolved.

The ITF inspector has called on the Department of the Marine port control authorities to inspect the ship.

Ken Fleming said the Filipino seafarers had not been provided with adequate food for a fortnight but the officers seemed to be looking after themselves.

The ship is registered in Liberia. The owners have so far not been identified.

[Randy Martens]

With the technology in this day and age, I find it baffling that a) this kind of practice still exists, and b) that they can't find out who owns a ship.

[philippine]

For anyone interested in this story, a Filipino paper, the Balita Pinoy, has published photos taken at the time of the inspection on board the Lady Chiara when it was boarded in Cork. These graphically illustrate the food, or lack of it, the crew were supposed to eat.The link is to the story which also takes you to the photo gallery, not to be seen before breakfast.

http://www.balitapinoy.net/link.asp?smenu=382&sdetail=14950&wpage=1

[Mike]

Agree with all a very sad story of 'One law for us' and another for them!
Full credit to the ITF inspector and full marks for their actions, but I would have impounded/arrested the ship until the real owners agreed 'everything in writing'

[odindj]

SCHULTE SLAMS ITF INSPECTOR
Tuesday, 13 May 2008

MAJOR shipmanager Bernard Schulte has criticised the way the ITF has handled an alleged complaint by Filipino crew members of the 27,350 dwt, 1986-built Liberian-flag chemical tanker Chiara. The company has expressed concerns that instead of dealing with any complaints through agreed procedures an ITF inspector in the Republic of Ireland issued press releases claiming conditions aboard the vessel were