KARACHI: Jamal Hussain has recently travelled to Karachi from the north to apply for a job at a sea vessel. He got to know about the recruitment through the Facebook page of the shipping agent, in whose office he is now sitting and seems eager to apply. Hailing from Gilgit, he is a part of a new wave of youth who have travelled to Karachi in the hope of landing a job on a ship.

We are sitting at shipping agent Captain Raza Qadir’s office in Saddar. He hires for sea vessels going from Karachi to Dubai and then heading to countries like Egypt and Kuwait.

Hussain, who holds a degree from the Pakistan Marine Academy and is a second officer, says there are two ways of getting employed on a ship. “In this particular instance, I’ve been asked to fill in a form and provide my CV. The agent will share it with the owner of the ship,” he says.

“I won’t be asked to pay any money on this occasion as there already stands an agreement between the owner and the shipping agent. In the second scenario, most shipping agents ask for placement charges. This means they ask to be paid before they provide a job.”

At this point, the shipping agent chips in. Captain Qadir says that what the ship owner, also known as the principal, requires is a ‘Standard of Training Certificate of Watch-Keeping,’ the seaman book number, certificate of competency, passport and testimonials of previous employers.

“The Director of Ports and Shipping provides the licence to a ship, on the basis of which recruitment takes place. The salary depends on the financial strength of the ship’s owner. The captain gets paid between $5,000 and $13,000,” he adds.

With the news of a Pakistani shipping crew going missing in Yemen still fresh, and of licences that were allegedly illegally issued to vessels and crew members boarding the ship without a contract, Captain Qadir stands firm in his denial. “There’s a contract of employment between the owner and the crew member,” he explains. “The contract is based on the Pakistan Shipping Act and Merchant Shipping Act 1923. The government shipping office in Kemari has a record of every crew member on board, and this is shared with the country where the cargo is headed.

“A no-objection certificate is issued by the two countries on the basis of this information, and a visa is issued thereof. Even if a crew member manages to get on board without proper documents, he’d get caught at immigration and be deported,” he says.

Three people are privy to the basic information about crew members: the owner (principal), the shipping agent and the shipping master. A shipping master holds the entire record of a crew member and the vessel, whereas the captain is there to lead the crew. The hiring takes eight to 10 days, after which the crew member is signed on by the shipping officer. A junior officer, such as Hussain, is hired on a six-month contract, which is renewed on the basis of his behaviour and competence.

A shipping licence is issued by the Director General of Ports and Shipping based on the agreement that the shipping agent will provide 50 crew members annually.

‘Fake licences’

This is where the problem usually lies. The union, or whatever is left of it at ports and shipping, decries the issuance of ‘fake or illegal’ licences to vessels without background checks. They blame the practice for the recurring mishaps at sea.

On their part, shipping agents such as Captain Qadir lament that there are not many people left to hire for a ship any more.

At present, Captain Qadir holds an order from the federal ombudsman secretariat in Islamabad to get his licence renewed. The ministry concerned (ports and shipping) had refused to do so earlier as he only provided 38 crew members annually instead of the required 50.

Reading out the order, he says the court noticed that the number of agents had increased over the years and that the agency should have allowed the number of crew for the “sake of employment and survival of 38 families”.

Complaining about non-compliance with the order, Captain Qadir alleges that “this is a clash of egos”.

Most of those hired as crew members come from either the south of Pakistan or the north. Hussain, who is from Gilgit, says that he is qualified to work on a ship because “I fulfil all requirements”.

“I have heard about issues on ships, but currently this is the best option I have.”

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2017