A WEB page enabling workers to gain rapid access to essential information about their health and safety rights and responsibilities has been set up by the Health and Safety Executive.

The "workers’ webpage" http://www.hse.gov.uk/ workers
- covers the roles and responsibilities of employers and employees, as well as issues such as ‘whistle-blowing’ and reporting accidents.

Four Filipino seamen are still stranded inside a tugboat anchored some two kilometers off the coast of Mina Salman in Bahrain because their vessel the M/V Audrey has been detained since last year with the approval of the Bahrain’s courts due to a financial dispute between the ship’s Dubai-based Filipino owner and the United Arab Emirates-based company that chartered it.

The 100-foot tugboat is owned by Dubai-based Filipino Richard V Jorge and flies the Ghana flag. The vessel reached Bahrain waters in December last year from the UAE, with its main role as a supplier of equipment to other vessels in the area.

After its detention, it was moved from a mooring buoy to an anchorage off the coast of Mina Salman in March and the crew members were ordered by the court to remain aboard. They were also not allowed to set foot on dry land until a court approves their stay in Bahrain.

Acting deck officer Romeo Dacanay, able seaman Novi Peregua, oiler Ruben Archangel and third engineer Luis Lamigo have been forced to live aboard the M/V Audrey reportedly under appalling conditions. It was even reported in October that they are running out of food and clean water onboard the detained tugboat.

Fortunately for the four Filipino seafarers, humanitarian aid is coming to them after a local company agreed to donate food, water, books, toiletries, pre-paid phone cards and other necessities aboard the M/V Audrey on a weekly basis.

The goods are being delivered by the Bahrain International Seafarers’ Society (BISS), who, along with the vessel’s Bahrain agent, Gulf Agency Company (GAC), have been providing them with humanitarian assistance, since the start of their ordeal.

“The living conditions onboard are appalling. Since the ship’s air-conditioning broke down, they have been forced to sleep on the deck of M/V Audrey using makeshift beds,” points out BISS seafarers’ welfare representative Reverend Victor Salve. 

“When we delivered the goods, we sat on the upper deck in sweltering summer heat as the air-conditioning system of the tugboat was not working. They are also economizing the consumption of fuel so the crew runs the diesel generator only at night for lighting and safety purposes.”

The Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) has also stepped in to help the sailors, who are all that remains of the original nine-crew members of the Audrey.

You can now join or start any discussion on seafarer's issues anytime or anywhere you are with