This shit is extremely weird and happens all over. For some reason sailors are just absolutely not allowed off their shitty falling apart ships and have to stay on board even after the owners vanish and leave them hanging in the wind. There are sailors trapped in this situation in ports all over the world - the ships are too damaged to sail, or the owners vanished without paying port fees and the ship is impounded, or whatever. Weird shit. And all these sailors, mostly from global south countries, are trapped. The country they’re stuck in won’t let them off the ship, they have no way to pay for port fees or fuel and sometimes even food or water. It’s utterly fucking bizarre.
I don’t think it’s a large number of ships in absolute terms, but it is common in the sense that at least a few ships are trapped in this limbo all the time. There’s this whole world of ultra-shady shipping with ships that are registered in sketchy tax haven countries, or have no registration, and they get abandoned all the time. And sailors in general just get treated like shit. A lot of sailors come from poor global south countries and get treated as disposable. Terrible conditions, bad or no support from the ship owners, if something goes wrong they can be stranded and totally fucked. It’s a mess, like a serious problem for workers.
I’m genuinely shocked that something to ensure this doesn’t happen isn’t included in any of the countless treaties regarding international trade
Is there not a point at which you can just deport them? Far from the ideal solution but at a certain point fuck it, just “arrest” them and send them home.
Yeah it’s possibly the one ethical thing border control can do, give them a free flight home. So of course they’re not going to do that
the FBI still has their seized phones and shit, so not only are they stuck on a damaged ship they might be unable to reach out to family and friends (not sure what the communication/internet situation is on a ship like that).
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this is a great addendum to the other comments about the regularity of this: it’s not entirely racism or from the ‘host’ country, the ship owners also don’t want their labor force escaping from phenomenally oppressive and dangerous conditions that exist on board. you let sailors off in port you traditionally lose some, and in neoliberal cost-cutting environments it’s even more essential to retain labor now as there’s less surplus replacements available.
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i wasn’t insinuating that all unfree labor on ships is stowaways that have been caught, rather that contingents of the laborforce are not allowed to exercise rights they should have through legal trickery. places go along with it even if their local laws should facilitate a more robust set of rights.
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Passports stay in the captain’s safe.
How the fuck is “you have to let people on cargo ships into your country at least temporarily” not in any of the treaties we have regarding international shipping?
: Can't have those [long string of slurs] ever even get the idea of setting foot on America's pure virgin soil!deleted by creator
What if they start intentionally destroying bridges to come ashore and take our jobs?
Brown people are statistically likely to not fuck around and that’s bad because it means we can’t profit off of projects taking 10X longer than they should be.
That’s hilarious and heartbreaking.
But then brown people might end up in your country!
Behold the naked depravity of a state subservient to capital, observe the rules-based cruelty and recoil in horror
a barge crashed into a bridge and you’re worried about the expense of a motel 6?
This line goes hard
Yo I’m from Baltimore originally, they don’t even need a motel 6. There’s aid groups for sailors who get stuck in the port for a while (happens semi frequently if a ship has mechanical problems or something). They had like small kitchens to make food, vans to take people places and I’m pretty sure they even gave some small bunk houses at their disposal.
This story is senselessly evil enough that I’m struggling to believe it.
Similar thing happened with the ship that brought all that Ammonium Nitrate to Beirut, which happened to blow tf up a few years back.
One thing that really sucks about these sorts of things is they highlight the USA’s desperate need for investing in public infrastructures but at the same time demonize the idea of public works/goods/services like roads, bridges, ports. It really shows how utterly hallow the skulls of most media class is.
fucking unreal. I watched the explosions the other day live while the reporters just sat there like gleeful children waiting for the countdown. Not one mention of the people on board or the situation that’s going on, had no fucking clue anyone was still on board till I saw this post. There has to be some type of protocol that doesn’t let you set off explosives in an inhabited vessel, absolutely no way this was done legally without intervention.
I sat there innocently wondering if the ship would move (since no one would be on a ship they’re setting explosives off on) but figured they had anchored it pretty heavily beforehand and evacuated.
WHY CAN’T THEY JUST STAY IN A MOTEL?
Umm ackshually national security of burgerland could be compromised if we let brown people go to a motel 🤓
And spend money? Are you mad? We need to help Ukraine and Israel
Pretty sure no one would’ve release them shore side though because maritime laws are universally fucked. I’ve never heard of a place thats doesnt treat merchant sailors like shit.
