March 14, 2009

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and and Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) are invest­ig­at­ing a shipjump­ing incid­ent in Duned­in where nine Indone­sian sea­farers left the fish­ing trawl­er Marinui on Fri­day 10 March.

ITF New Zea­l­and co-ordin­at­or Kathy Whelan says the Uni­on has been in touch with the Min­istry of Immig­ra­tion about the case, and ITF rep­res­ent­at­ives will try to speak to the fish­er­men at Auck­land Air­port before they are sent home tomor­row.

She says she is extremely con­cerned about the increas­ing num­bers of for­eign sea­farers leav­ing their ves­sels in New Zea­l­and ports, in this case claim­ing they were sub­jec­ted to 24 hour shifts with no breaks, two hour sleep breaks, and phys­ic­al abuse.