Day: 13 June 2006

Plea for help from fishing vessel “named and shamed” in global abuse report

Burmese crew mem­bers aboard the fish­ing ves­sel “Sky 75” in the Port of Timaru have approached unions with a plea for help, a day after their ves­sel was “named and shamed” in an inter­na­tion­al report.

The fish­ing ves­sel “Sky 75” was fea­tured as a spe­cif­ic exam­ple of crew abuse in an inter­na­tion­al report from the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) that was pre­sent­ed to a Unit­ed Nations meet­ing on mar­itime law that opened in New York yes­ter­day.

New Zealand ITF co-ordi­na­tor Kathy Whe­lan says the “Sky 75” is a repeat offend­er, and the ves­sel had already come to the atten­tion of the ITF when 10 Indone­sian crew left the Kore­an reg­is­tered fish­ing ves­sel ‘Sky 75’ in the Port of Nel­son in Sep­tem­ber 2005.