SCI Convenes Piracy Roundtable
by Douglas B. Stevenson, Director of SCI’s Center for Seafarers’ Rights
December 11, 2009
On Tuesday, December 8, the Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) convened a roundtable discussion in New York on the care of seafarers and families of seafarers affected by piracy. At its Water Street Headquarters, SCI brought together representatives of governments and the maritime industry1 along with health professionals and port chaplains for the latest installment in its “thought leader” programs, providing neutral ground for discussion on current issues affecting mariners.
SCI’s Executive Director, the Rev. David M. Rider, moderated the roundtable. He used SCI’s groundbreaking clinical study on piracy’s effects on merchant mariners and its preliminary guidelines on post-piracy care as the catalyst for a discussion on responding to piracy’s effects. Rider underscored the necessity to work in partnership with maritime stakeholders in this endeavor, as the results would benefit the entire industry.
Dr. Michael Garfinkle, SCI’s Clinical Researcher and author of the guidelines on post-piracy care, emphasized our work will cover more than caring for seafarers who have been attacked by pirates. We also need to provide seafarers with an appropriate “mental health tool-belt,” addressing the fears of seafarers routinely sailing through high-risk areas.
Representatives from Ukraine (which has 33 citizen seafarers currently being held hostage in Somalia) described their nation’s responses to maritime piracy, emphasizing the need for international coordination and cooperation and commending SCI’s initiatives to care for seafarers and their families.
The experiences shared by shipowners and management companies contributed to developing the logistics of SCI’s study and to the recommendations that can be used by nations, first responders, shipowners and others interested in ameliorating the effects of piracy on seafarers and their families.
1 Representatives from the United Nations, flag states, labor supplying nations, ship owners and operators, trade unions, marine insurance, law firms, and maritime security firms
