Seafarers' onshore leave at risk due to dwindling volunteer numbers at regional ports

International seafarers docking in regional Australian ports may soon face limited access to onshore leave and vital support services due to a shortage of volunteers at local Mission to Seafarers chapters.

The Mission to Seafarers charity provides crucial support to thousands of foreign workers who spend months at sea without setting foot on land. Australia has signed a UN charter to protect their rights, including the right to shore leave.

Shore leave a lifeline for seafarers

Australia has ratified the Maritime Labour Convention (2006), a United Nations charter that stipulates international seafarers should be able to leave their port for time on land. In most Australian ports, the Mission to Seafarers charity provides international workers with support, including a free shuttle bus to the Seafarer Welfare Centre.

Neville Mason, manager of the Mission to Seafarer Portland chapter, has been working in the port for over 20 years, driving a shuttle bus to the Seafarer Welfare Centre, which he also runs. "We have often found crew that have not stepped on land for three months or longer," he said. "They love Australia. Australia is really good with seafarers' welfare — pretty much every port here has a welfare centre, but it's not the case around the world."

The welfare centre in Portland includes a shop, prayer room, and recreation spaces. Seafarer welfare centres are spaces near ports for the crew to relax, socialise, use the internet, get transport into town, currency exchange, or access to medical care.

Sailor Paul Gegremosa said the centre gave him his only opportunity to relax between months spent at sea. "During my shore leave, we will be going to the city to access some food, groceries, or anything that relieves stress, like just sightseeing, because on board you will see the same ship, the same cabin," he said.

Volunteer numbers dwindling

About 5,000 seafarers come through the Port of Portland every year, and manager Neville Mason said almost all of them make use of the welfare centre. However, the Portland chapter once had plenty of volunteers, but these days has fewer than 20, who have an average age of 80. Two volunteers are needed per shift, one to run the centre and the other to drive the bus.

"[Volunteers are] also volunteering at the op shop, at the Coast Guard, at the church fete — they're doing multiple volunteer jobs, so it stretches the whole volunteering workforce. Volunteers are like gold."

Portland's most dedicated volunteer is 91-year-old Ern Harrison, who works five six-hour shifts a week. Mr Harrison believed Australia would not function without the international crew behind the shipping industry. "Australia is a continent with water all around and if those ships come in from the other side of the continent, they've got 30 days sailing," he said. "I would not like to be locked on the ship for 30 or 40 days and not being able to get off and have a break at the other end of it."

Calls for federal funding

Australian ambassador for global advocacy group Human Rights at Sea, Paul MacGillivary, said the volunteer model was unsustainable. He would like to see Australia introduce a system similar to New Zealand's, where a portion of the government levies imposed on commercial ships docking is set aside to fund seafarer welfare services.

"We've been proposing now for five years to adopt a New Zealand model and there's been huge resistance to that," Mr MacGillivary said. He said the support for international seafarers had been left up to a charity organisation for too long.

A spokesperson for the federal transport minister said it was the responsibility of vessels, ports, and Port Welfare Committees to ensure workers' rights set out in the Maritime Labour Convention are met.