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Twenty-nine international delegates and a representative each from the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) and the Maritime Union of India (MUI) participated in the ITF Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meeting from 29-31 January, which was held in Mumbai, India for the first time.
The meeting was hosted by the NUSI and MUI and chaired by Mike Murphy, chair of the ITF MSC.
Representatives from the National, Foreign Shipowners Association, stakeholders from the Indian shipping fraternity and Mahendra Sharma, ITF Asia Pacific regional secretary, were present for the opening ceremony. Gautam Chatterjee, the Indian government’s director general of shipping, was the main guest.
On the first day of the meeting, as part of its welfare programme, the NUSI gave cheques of Rupees two lakhs (approximately £2,875) to five Indian seafarers and the family of a sixth. The seafarers had been held in captivity on the hijacked vessel Iceberg 1 in Somalia for more than 1,000 days.
Among topics explored during the three-day meeting, participants discussed how to increase the number of training berths on ships and the difficulties they faced in their efforts to increase job opportunities for trainee crew members.
Abdulgani Serang, NUSI general secretary-cum-treasurer and ITF seafarers section regional vice chair for South Asia, said: “We were delighted to host this meeting with the MUI and feel it was very successful. It gave us the opportunity to discuss at length some of the most pressing issues facing Indian seafarers today and to get the benefit of an international perspective.”