Hundreds of Nigerian Seafarers Languish in Prisons Nationwide

By Funso Olojo

The Mission To Seafarers, an international Non- Governmental Organization has raised raised the alarm over high rate of Nigerian Seafarers languishing in cells across the country.

The group also identified unemployment among seafarers as contributory factor to high crime rate in the country.

The mission to seafarers, is an international, non-governmental, and non-profit making organization established by an Anglican priest as a social responsibility of the church to the society.

Presently, the mission has its existence in over 150 countries of the world with relationship with over 200 ports across the globe with international headquarters in the United Kingdom.

Speaking in Lagos with Journalists, the Chaplain, Mission to Seafarers, Francis Duroja, argued that, government agencies in the maritime industry have abandoned the seafarers in prison.

His words, “When we go to prisons, we meet the foreign seafarers who are few in number, but the Nigerian seafarers there are more, and because the board receives more support from foreigners than Nigeria, you can imagine what would happen, so they would want to assist more foreign seafarers before coming to the Nigerian Seafarers.

“The National Seafarers’ Welfare Board is even being supported mainly by international bodies; they get little or no support from the local agencies. If there is a situation whereby our government, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is heavily supporting the National Seafarers Welfare Board, it would not be a problem taking it upon ourselves to attend to needs of the Nigerian seafarers.”

The Chaplain also noted that because of the attitude Nigerian agencies showed towards indigenous seafarers, international body doesn’t take Nigerian Seafarers serious.

“What I discovered was that, the international body is more interested in the welfare of the international seafarers that come into the country more than the welfare of Nigerian seafarers, they believe that Nigeria should be able to take care of its seafarers.

“When they came in January, we talked about the center here and they have promised to contribute to the development of this center because we need to resuscitate it and make it up to international standard.

“However, the international body has said that they need to see us start doing something first before they would come and assist, they want to see us in Nigeria working and doing the needful, they have heard all the stories about our country and it is giving them setback.”

Speaking on the level of unemployment among seafarers and its implications on youth restiveness in the country, Duroja said, “The unemployment issue among the seafarers is contributing to the militancy, kidnapping and armed robbery. Each time we have the opportunity to speak up like this, we tell the government to wake up to their responsibility.”