Greek seafarers gathered outside the shipowners union in Piraeus on Thursday to protest that they colleagues are stranded in the Gulf area amid the escalating Middle East war and demanded the area is declared a war risk zone to enable their repatriation.
They carried banners demanding especially the repatriation of seafarers-students on board of the vessels trapped in the Gulf area. They threw what the called “bloody oil-dollars” and said that “seafarers today are fighting a strike against the bloody profits of shipowners.”
The protest was organized by two unions, while the Seamen’s Federation PNO had declared a 24-hour strike on March 5 and forcing ferries and ships of all types to remain docked at the ports across the country.
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“We demand that all of our colleagues, currently in the dangerous Gulf area, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea, are evacuated and safely repatriated,” said Angelos Galanopoulos, head of Greece’s lower engine crews’ union Stephenson.
“The government and ship-owners are responsible for the people trapped in war areas,” Apostolis Kypraios, president of the marine engineers’ union PEMEN, said.
Outside the shipowners’ union offices, Kypraios and another PENEM member denounced the absence of the shipowners, even though they knew that there would be a strike rally and that the Union had requested a meeting.
A motorcycle convoy drove later to the Shipping Ministry.
The Iran conflict has already disrupted global trade through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery accounting for about 20% of global oil and gas supply. Although the Strait is not shut, Iran has warned that it will fire on any ship trying to pass through.
Greece is a dominant force in global shipping, controlling one of the world’s largest merchant fleets.
Shipping Minister Vassilis Kikilias said beginning of the week that “ten Greek-flagged vessels with 85 Greek seafarers” were in the Persian Gulf, five were outside, while a total of around 325 vessels linked to Greece but flying foreign flags are in the wider area.
The wife of a sailor stranded in the Gulf told a TV channel that her husband and the whole crew were in good health and had enough supplies regarding food and other essentials.
“The problem is, of course, how long the war will last, what will happen if someone falls ill or there is an attack and how they will get supplies if they run out of,” the woman said.
