In framework of permanent cooperation with UN bodies our Association send in April our comments to Working Group on Business and Human Rights for its report “Labour Migration, Business and Human Rights” to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly regarding ongoing challenges of Ukrainian seafarers at the global labor market.
ARC’s submission, published at UN web-sources now, stressed that during the three decades of Ukrainian independence, maritime labor has become a system-forming factor in the life of all domestic coastal regions.
ARC’s submission reminded to UN bodies that the Russian occupation and attempted annexation of the Crimea since 2014 led to the gradual de-facto loss by Ukraine a labour of several tens of thousands of sailors from the AR of Crimea and Sevastopol.
ARC’s submission added that the biggest challenge for the work of Ukrainian sailors on the global market was the large-scale Russian aggression, which, among other things, led to the destruction by the aggressor of Mariupol, as one of the hubs for training sailors and places of their traditional residence, as well as the temporary occupation of Kherson.
ARC’s submission reminded that Russia’s illegal activities cause non-precedent flows of migration of millions of Ukrainians, as Russia-controlled troops and mercenaries committed in Ukraine gross violation of international law, including enforced labour, deportations, servitude and slavery.
ARC’s submission added that Russian troops and fake “administrations” created by Russian invaders actively use the practice of deportation and extrajudicial executions of local civil population, including seafarers.
Moreover, the crisis in the employment of Ukrainian seafarers was compounded by global changes in the maritime labor market, when the share of European sailors on ships is gradually decreasing, in particular due to the aging population of the continentєs countries, and the labor supply from a wide range of other countries is constantly growing, ARC’s submission pointed.
Thus, the submission added, the current situation will lead to the collapse of the work of Ukrainian seafarers in world shipping. The corresponding consequences for Ukraine are seen as catastrophic in two dimensions.
First, the coastal regions will lose one of the key sources of financing for households, local small and medium-sized businesses and the consumer sector, which, under conditions of war and post-conflict recovery, may have irreversible negative socio-economic consequences.
Second, Ukraine loses thousands of economically active, educated and socially successful citizens – seafarers and their family members.
Our Association added in submission that urgent, immediate steps of the UN expert mechanisms, independent experts and special rapporteurs in condition of ongoing interstate conflict and hostilities must be done on issues of defending Ukrainian seafarers’ right to development, including all observation procedures and immediate visits to Ukraine.
