Nigerian Seafarers

The British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, has produced a film that looks at the pressures faced by people working at sea, expressed through the eyes of an Ethiopian seafarer.

In the storyline, Amaha Senu left his home in Ethiopia to become a merchant seafarer, attracted by the financial opportunities. Soon he began to regret his decision and considered taking his own life.

Suicide rates among seafarers have more than tripled since 2014 and are now the most common cause of death at sea, according to figures from the UK P&I Club. Crew deaths attributed to suicide have increased from 4.4 percent in 2014-2015 to 15.3 percent in 2015-2016.

Between 2001 and 2005, merchant seafarers scored the second highest level of suicides amongst all professions, after coal miners, according to research published by Swansea University in 2013. Today, the rate of suicide for international seafarers is triple that of shore workers, according to the IMO.

ISWAN offers immediate response to seafarer calls via its 24-hour multilingual helpline, SeafarerHelp, which has recently been made available on mobile messaging service WhatsApp.

A publication Managing Traumatic Stress – Guidance for Maritime Organizations is available online to provide top-level guidance to senior management to help improve the mental health of seafarers. It offers education and evidence-based approaches specifically designed for the maritime industry.

The guidance is authored by Professor Neil Greenberg, Managing Director of March on Stress and Professor of Defense Mental Health at King’s College London and published by The Nautical Institute in partnership with the charity Human Rights at Sea.

Reactions

Seafareres old and young continue to react to this suicide theory thus:

Hans Neumann “Sorry son, you are not seaman, because its in the blood i am now 74 years old , and still missing the sea” !.

For Jake Andrews “The Seafaring Life = All the charms of Prison, with the added possibility of Drowning.

With the absence of recuperative time ashore to recharge the batteries when in port, the stress on those who are being worked 7 / 24 like rented mules eventually breaks down many otherwise qualified Mariners. You can’t properly staff the Ship – without caring for the Staff. Money alone is not enough, as surrendering your Life to many months without a Life – takes a very harsh toll”

Sagar Madhusudhan Billy says “I think the discussion or the subject itself is very skewed. Evidently, this guy and many others like him don’t have the right aptitude to be at sea. I am an Indian seafarer, engineer to be precise, and have been at sea since 2010 and am enjoying it thoroughly. So, this whole premise of bad mental health of seafarers exists when ppl get into it for the wrong reasons, if you ask me, much like any other profession”.