Pandemic maroons ship crews at sea, others on shore

The plight of the 150,000-plus seafarers caught up in coronavirus lockdown measures is one of the various emerging humanitarian crises of the pandemic. And it’s near a critical juncture, according to this report from Wired – in a typical month, around 100,000 seafarers either leave or join vessels around the world. That flow has dwindled dramatically and many seafarers have found themselves caught up in a tangle of red tape, partly because so many countries still refuse to classify them as essential workers. For example: “One sailor signed off his ship in Valencia, Spain. He flew to London, only to find that the connecting flights to India were all cancelled. He spent five days in the airport before his company figured the best move was to put him back to work and flew him to Brazil. But there, the local port authority didn’t allow him to board his ship, which has since left,  and now he is stuck in Brazil.”