Seafarers
Help in a crisis
We are here for you when the worst happens
Are you affected by the situation in the Gulf?
Our Crisis Response Network and global helpline team are available 24/7 for any seafarer or family member caught up in this crisis.
If you are trapped, anxious about your route or worried about a loved one on board, we are here to help.
Seafaring should be safe and uneventful, but occasionally things can go wrong and whether it’s abandonment, attack, shipwreck, injury or imprisonment we are here for you 24/7, whenever you need us and wherever in the world you find yourself.
We know a crisis at sea can be frightening but you are not alone.
We will be at your side, visiting and comforting you and your family and helping you. That might be getting medical help, getting you home or getting you an interpreter or lawyer to represent you.
Here are just some of the people we have helped:
“I was so very far from my home and I missed my family – but Sailors’ Society has made my heart so much lighter. I hold you in my heart as family.”
Seafarer Anand found himself thousands of miles from his home in India embroiled in a long-running saga involving abandoned ships in the port of Durban.
This was all unknown to Anand, who thought he had applied for a role on a working vessel.
Desperate and abandoned on a ship going nowhere, he and his crew mate were unexpectedly arrested and charged by Immigration officials when they left their vessel to take a walk in the port. Anand was sentenced to a year behind bars because his paperwork had expired.
Over several months, we worked with lawyers and got both Anand and his crew mate released.
And while he was in prison our CRN chaplain Boet, visited him regularly, providing a friendly face, food and drink and a phone card to call home.
“We really appreciate Sailors’ Society’s support for us and our families and we are looking forward to this continuing when we get home.”
When the crew of the Heroic Idun were detained in Nigeria falsely accused of smuggling, our CRN team supported them throughout their 10-month detention and the postponement of several trial dates. We were also alongside their families back home in the Kochin, Mumbai and Bhubaneshwar areas of India.
When the crew were finally freed and sailed into Durban, members of the CRN team were on hand to greet them, give them space to talk and then help them get back home to India. And we stayed in touch just in case any trauma surfaced later.
We also help with personal crises:
When Xen, a Chinese seafarer, tried several times to end his life, his crewmates called our helpline.
Six weeks from port, our international team were able to be on the phone with him 24/7 throughout the rest of the voyage and arranged for medical help to be waiting for him portside when they eventually docked.
He is now back home with his family, living a healthy and happy life.
And we are there for your families:
We were there for Pila’s widowed mother when he died in a ship fire.
She was left facing a repatriation fee of $500 to bring his body home. She also had to pay back the loan that secured the contract; his first job.
We brought Pila’s body home for her.
We are also there for your crew mates:
When a ship’s captain was informed that a crew member’s wife had taken her own life and that of their 5-year-old son, our CRN team was on hand to give the captain advice on how to handle this difficult situation, not just with the seafarer, but with other crew members.
THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS
Thanks to Swire Shipping and Wah Kwong Maritime Transport who recognise the value of our CRN and have generously made a donation towards this work in our 10th anniversary year
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