NYK and UK Club get together over stowaways

A 100 per cent increase in the cost of stowaway incidents in the past ten years means that stowaways cost the international shipping industry more than $20 million per year. The trend has prompted the world's largest ship operator, NYK of Japan, and the largest protection & indemnity insurer, the UK P&I Club, to get together to discuss the problem.

Fifty members of NYK senior regional management, terminal representatives from major Chinese ports including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Shekou and Shanghai, and representatives from the UK Club met in conference under the auspices of NYK Line (China) Ltd. The attendees included Tomoo Kitayama, a board member of the NYK Group.

NYK wants to raise awareness of stowaway problems among its shore based and terminal operators in China and of the preventive measures available to reduce the number of incidents.

The UK Club's Peter Lau said that in 2007 his club, the largest marine mutual, was involved in around 120 stowaway cases, costing over $2 million. Numbers have fallen since 1998-2003 when they were consistently between 350 and 400. Total costs have also fallen but not by as much. Indeed, the average cost per case has climbed from under $6,000 in 2000 to around $14,500 in 2007. The impact on individual ship owners was likely to be greater, given rising deductibles and the non-reporting of small and quickly solved cases.

Over the 1998-2007 period, South Africa topped the list of countries in which UK Club stowaway cases arose with 190. Next came the Ivory Coast (169), followed by Senegal (165), Argentina (106) and the United States (105). Between 50 and 80 cases arose in Italy, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Spain and Gabon.

Costs varied considerably between countries, continued Mr Lau. The 128 cases in the USA and Canada cost over $2 million while the 190 from South Africa came in at $1.68 million. The 30 Brazilian cases averaged around $47,000 whereas the North American ones came in at about $15,000, the South African around $9,000 and the German and the Ivory Coast cases close to $6,000 each.

The main regions for stowing away are China and west and east Africa. Not surprisingly, most individuals hope to reach North America and northern Europe. The Asia Pacific region poses its own challenges with the illegal trafficking of humans. Despite official efforts, the tide of illegal immigrants to the US and Europe from Asia, particularly China, continues to cause concern. Shippers, slot charterers and some terminal personnel sometimes collude in such crime.

Ro-ro and multi-cargo vessels have proved the most popular vehicles for stowaways over the ten-year period, accounting for 31 per cent of cases. They were followed by bulk carriers (23 per cent) and containerships and general cargo vessels (both 16 per cent).

The UK Club cases involving container vessels varied between 40 and 58 annually for 1998-2004. Over the three subsequent years, they totalled just 61----a possible consequence of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code coming into force.

NYK had also experienced a marked downturn in the number of stowaway cases over the last decade, particularly in containerships. Close cooperation between NYK and its terminal operators during incidents had certainly proved worthwhile.

Mr Lau summarised owner and vessel obligations to stowaways and port authorities, issues under SOLAS and ISPS, actions to be carried out by owner, vessel, correspondent and insurer, and the enhanced need for vigilance, searches and close co-operation with the authorities.

He observed: "The stowaway problem is never going to go away. Individuals seeking a better life will always find ways to get aboard ships, and those making money from the trafficking of people will always manage to conceal their "cargo" and ship it without detection.

"The container trade offers a tempting pipeline for smugglers which can only be tackled through close cooperation between terminals and ship owners. Cargo may be loaded into a box a thousand miles from a port and remain unseen until unloaded from that same box on the other side of the world. The security challenge thus starts from the moment a container booking is received.

"If a security culture is pursued vigorously from the booking desk to the floodlit deck of the ship, potential stowaways and smugglers will never have it easy," concluded Mr. Lau.

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