Seafarers Rock The
Boat
March/April 2005
For
the first time in over two years, a foreign seafarer was allowed
off the ship at the Exxon Terminal in Everett, Massachusetts.
The policy of prohibiting all foreign seafarers from their
dock, established by the Terminal shortly after 9/11, effectively
detained all foreign seafarers onboard ships at the Exxon
dock whether or not the U.S. government had cleared them to
go ashore.
Until
last month, seafarers had to stay aboard and communicate their
needs via phones and visitors. According to Bill Fleming,
Chaplain and Mission Director of Seafarer's Friend, for the
past two years it was up to visitors to make hundreds of trips
to ships moored at the Exxon dock to deliver and pick up cell
phones. These phones enabled crew members, restricted to the
ships, to contact their homes and families from shipboard. "This dock had more ship arrivals than any other in the area
so thousands of seafarers were denied the right to go ashore."
It
was this type of practice that prompted the Resolution Supporting
Seafarer Rights to be proposed by the Board of Directors,
Essex Association, and then passed at the MACUCC 2004 Annual
Meeting. The resolution was in support of the rights of seafarers,
calling upon Massachusetts port officials to comply with Coast
Guard regulations allowing for shore leaves for foreign crew
members who have proper identification but who are currently
denied the right to disembark from their vessels.
"We
are very grateful to Exxon for making this difficult decision,"
says Fleming. "We understand that security is everyone's responsibility,
and we will do all in our power to make sure this policy works
for all parties."
Fleming
concludes, "we are not sure of all the reasons the policy
was reversed, but there are indications that our MACUCC Resolution
may have had at least a small role in the process."
Located
in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Seafarer's Friend, which is affiliated
with the United Church of Christ, extends the ministry of
the churches to meet the unmet spiritual, social, emotional,
and physical needs in the New England maritime community.
| 
Return
to main page