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ALICE BRENNAN: Hi there, Alice Brennan here, welcome to Background Briefing. This week we are setting sail on the high seas.
RONBERT BIBAT: We are start now scraping the dust. Chipping the rust. Until after chipping we sweeping up, after sweeping we mop.
ALICE BRENNAN: Men in blue overalls and white hard hats look like mini-figures swallowed by a giant mechanical beast.
Ridged red walls of steel tower around them - 17 metres high.
RONBERT BIBAT: Yes. You can see, it's like a stadium it's like a gymnasium
ALICE BRENNAN: It might look like a stadium but there's no sport being played here.
RONBERT BIBAT: Thanks be to God that the weather is good.
ALICE BRENNAN: A bright blue sky looms high above them - but these men are working below the surface of the Ocean. They're cold... and they can't escape.
They're effectively trapped on a floating sweatshop in the middle of the Pacific.... Working 12 hours a day, six days a week and another 8 hours on a Sunday.
They're in the belly of a massive cargo ship. And because of the pandemic, they can't get off.
RONBERT BIBAT: This guy is 16 months from on board. Also this one.
ALICE BRENNAN: Ronbert Bibat is one of the guys who's stuck on the ship, he's been there for well over a year.
He's a 41 year old Philippino with a goofy grin and a cherubic face. His home is where his wife and two daughters are, half a world away in Zamboanga in the Southern Philippines.
Ronbert wants to get home in time for his eldest daughter Ronica's 15th birthday - but he's braced for disappointment.
RONBERT BIBAT: I hope on her birthday, I... I will be there, but I don't know if I can participate.
ALICE BRENNAN: For now, working on this ship is his only certainty.
RONBERT BIBAT: Sergey where you ... when we can go ashore or go home? He said to me, I don't know.
ALICE BRENNAN: As they scrape the rust off the hull, Ronbert needles his workmates about the fact they've got no idea when they're gonna get home.
RONBERT BIBAT: Who can save us?
ALICE BRENNAN: Here on bulk carrier the M.V. Starlight, hope has become something of a joke.
RONBERT BIBAT: Michael when we can go home.
MICHAEL: I don't know ... it doesn't matter anymore...I just lose hope..
RONBERT BIBAT: He said he was just losing his hope.
ALICE BRENNAN: Ronbert signed onto the ship in July 2019.
It was meant to be his last 9 months away from the family so he could help fund a small shop in Mindanao.
But Ronbert's stopped promising his two young daughters that he'll be home anytime soon.
RONBERT BIBAT: I sir I feel very, very sad. I'm longing for so long to go home
ALICE BRENNAN: Port and border restrictions enforced to stall the spread of COVID-19 have in fact prevented thousands of workers from getting home.
Background Briefing reporter Geoff Thompson's been investigating what's going on, and he's been speaking to the people who crew these boats, people just like Ronbert.
Geoff - how many Ronberts are out there, stuck on ships at sea?
GEOFF THOMPSON: Well Alice, there's estimates around that there could be 400,000 of these seafarers stuck on these ships.. And some of them have been there for as long as 20 months....
ALICE BRENNAN: And how did you get in touch with Ronbert?
GEOFF THOMPSON: We came across Ronbert because he'd put a comment on a facebook page saying 'please help me to go home, I'm 14 months on board. Help me. God bless.' something like that. So... sometimes these guys have internet access and so I called him via messenger.. we chatted for a while and I decided that I'd stay in touch with him --- I wanted to follow his campaign to be let off this ship, to see what would happen.
ALICE BRENNAN: And you did keep in touch with him?
GEOFF THOMPSON: And while I stayed in touch with Ronbert I also started to dig into what was happening at the ports here in Australia.
And when I looked into it... the first thing I realised is just how much we depend on these crews to get us our stuff.
So I'm standing in my kitchen making a coffee, and as I look around me, just about everything in here came here via the coffee machine, the coffee that's going through the fridge, pantry cupboard next to it, my stove, the dishwasher. And in the adjoining room, there's the TV phablet, bit of the furniture, the electronics on my desk, my home desk. There's my laptop and there's my phone. All of this stuff came here via the labour of the guys on these ships, and it's just hand out to my car. Well, that came here on a ship, too, along with just about all of the fuel that we burn in Australia to run them. In fact, about 75 percent of the stuff that we import into Australia gets here via ship.
So without those foreign crews on those ships bringing the stuff we like into Australia on container ships and without the foreign crews on the bulk carriers sending our resources to the world, well, without them, life in Australia as we know it simply stops. But right now, these guys are trapped at sea. And industry insiders say that governments, both state and federal, are partly to blame.
DEAN SUMMERS: So, you know what, I'm looking for see that they've had a chance to crew change those guys.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Dean Summers is trying to track down some ships.
SARAH: So he came from Korea then he's been in China. And Before China, Saudi Arabia and Italy.
DEAN SUMMERS: Alright, well he wouldn't have Crew changed in any of those ports.
GEOFF THOMPSON: He's driving around near Port Botany in Sydney constantly communicating with colleagues feeding him information over speaker phone.
DEAN SUMMERS: Can you tell me who ... Remind me who the crew are again.
SARAH: Indian
DEAN SUMMERS: And...
SARAH: Greek, Latvia
DEAN SUMMER: Okay, we'll follow that up in Melbourne.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Deans a kind of a big guy -- Bald, broad-shouldered and leathery, and he's a former seafarer himself. He's also the national coordinator of the ITF -- The international Transport Workers Federation.
DEAN SUMMERS: can you have a look at the trading pattern?
SARAH: Yep
GEOFF THOMPSON: Right now he's hearing ships with crews who have been aboard months past their contracts are about to dock in NSW and he wants to get on board to check if they're ok.
One in Port Kembla has just grabbed his attention.
DEAN SUMMERS: OK. So before Port Kembla was in Fremantle, and before Fremantle it was in China and before China, Korea and before Korea, New Zealand. So another one that wouldn't have had a chance to crew change.
GEOFF THOMPSON: So we get to Port Kembla and Dean finds the ship he's looking for - the bulk cargo carrier called the Global Future.
On the ship's back deck there's this soiled damp flag hanging against the grey sky.
DEAN SUMMERS: So this flag on the back deck here is a Panamanian flag.
It signifies and tells the world that this ship is registered in Panama. That's one of the more notorious flags of convenience. Panama, Monrovia, Liberia. In fact, everything about these ships that are flagged in these countries are deregulated leaving seafarers even more vulnerable with fewer and fewer opportunities to stand up for themselves.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Ships are often not registered in the countries where their owners live, but are instead registered in countries with loose shipping regulations that are also notorious tax havens, and that makes the shipowners hard to track down -- hence they're called Flags of convenience.
Forty percent of the world's commercial ships fly the flags of Panama, Liberia or the Marshall Islands.
The world's merchant fleet itself is worth almost one trillion dollars and that's just the value of the ships themselves - but the seafarers who crew them are often paid less than $5 an hour and so they're hired from countries where labour is really cheap.
Like the Philippines...
All of the crew on the Global Future are Phillipino - a country that supplies roughly a quarter of all the world's merchant seamen.
Dean heads inside the ship to speak with the captain.
DEAN SUMMERS: "We're coming in here? Hello ... hello sir ... good afternoon .. Captain I'm Dean Summers, I'm the national coordinator for the ITF
GEOFF THOMPSON: The inside of these ships all look pretty similar - narrow corridors and pokey rooms reminiscent of budget motels with their best years behind them.
Seafarers have a nickname for this life at sea - they call it "The Laminex Prison".
DEAN SUMMERS: So Captain welcome to Port Kembla...
DEAN SUMMERS....I just wanted to take the opportunity to come and have a look at a few things, mainly the IMO crew list, I just wanted to make sure that no-one's been on for too long on this ship.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Dean sits down with the captain in a mess room of laminated tables and shiny blond wood - it's where the crew eats their meals.
DEAN SUMMERS: looking here we've got 12 months - 13 months, some people have been on here for a very long time.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Dean looks at the crew list...and sees that at least one member has been on board for more than a year.
DEAN SUMMERS: so we see here the ordinary seaman's been on for 13 months.
GEOFF THOMPSON: That guy and a few other crew members appear in orange overalls and face masks.
ROBERTO CABARANG: I am Roberto Cabarang sir
GEOFF THOMPSON: He's extended his contract because with COVID all over the world he just feels safer on the ship and he also can make money so his kids can go to school.
ROBERTO CABARANG: It's OK because we avoid the situation, the Covid pandemic .
GEOFF THOMPSON: And you think it's safer on the ship than being outside?
ROBERTO CABARANG: Yeah. Yes, sir. It's safer because when one of us get sick. Everybody. Well, everybody will sick also, that's why we decided not to go out..
GEOFF THOMPSON: Ironically ... The pandemic means that there's a fate for seafarers that's worse than being stuck at sea - and that's being stuck at home and not making any money at all.
Because people aren't just being stopped from getting off ships -- new crews can't get on ships either.
SHERBERT BONDOC: based on my experience. Ten months vacation is too long.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Third mate Sherbert Bondoc joined the Global Future in August this year - but that's after 10 months of being at home without pay. He even had to borrow money from friends to survive.
So he's in no hurry to get off again
SHERBERT BONDOC: So I have eight children to feed, to send to school. But you have to be money wise is very, very hard to do. Do the budget for daily food bills and everything.
GEOFF THOMPSON: And at least if you're here the kids are going to school.
SHERBERT BONDOC: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's why I'm very happy. To stay onboard again.
GEOFF THOMPSON: On this ship, everything is in order -- and everyone who's on board, wants to be here.
But on many ships there are seafarers who haven't signed extensions -- and who are at sea effectively against their will, fighting to get home.
DEAN SUMMERS: Okay. So, Sandra, we got a couple of urgent things on today. How long have these guys been on board?
SANDRA: They've been over eleven months. I think it was. Some of them. I think Kelvin said there was one or two, 20 months
DEAN SUMMERS: 20 months....
GEOFF THOMPSON: Back at the ITF's office in Sydney's Haymarket, Dean gets word of a seafarer that hasn't been relieved for 20 months.
DEAN SUMMERS: All right. We really have to push this one up the top.
SANDRA: Yep
DEAN SUMMERS: Id people have been on there for 20 months..
SANDRA: Yes
DEAN SUMMERS: ... without a day off then we need to really push it up. Can you find out the next port?
GEOFF THOMPSON: The way it works is that contracts at sea for ordinary seamen are normally about 9 months, but it can be extended to 11 months in extreme circumstances... but because of the pandemic, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority ruled that 14 months was the new maximum limit. That's set to shift back to 11 months in February next year.
And if ships dock in Australia with crew kept any longer AMSA can detain them until those crew have been sent home - but it can't catch them all.
DEAN SUMMERS: Hello. Is that you Kelvin.
KELVIN: Yes, Yes this is Kelvin speaking
DEAN SUMMERS: Hi, Kelvin. It's Dean. How are you? ..... Very well, thanks, Mate. You had your hands full with the AL Valentini..... the company doesn't seem to be very enthusiastically in trying to get this guy off.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Dean and Sandra attempt to help that sailor - but it's too late he's gone - sailing away through the Malacca Strait.
... this is a guy who spent every day of the last 20 months either working or stuck in a tiny cabin like Ronbert's
RONBERT BIBAT: I want to show you my room. Here is my cabin.
RONBERT BIBAT: Which also I lie here when I watch my laptop. [00:02:00] there, as you can see how small is the cabin
GEOFF THOMPSON: His room's small but neat and tidy... a small porthole provides the only natural light - his bags are packed and ready so he can escape as quickly as he can.
RONBERT BIBAT: every break time I go to my cabin. I try to manage myself, not to get bored, not to get frustrated. Frustrated, not to get depressed. Just like that, sir.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Ronbert says he thinks the ship is heading towards the United States . But there's still no word about when or where he'll be getting off.
Back in Sydney, Dean Summers and I are paying a visit to Port Botany today.
DEAN SUMMERS: Sister Mary. This is Jeff.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Hi sister Mary. How are you? Nice to meet you.
DEAN SUMMERS: We'll get out and we'll give you a hand with this stuff.
SISTER MARY: Ah no, Don't be worrying about it.
DEAN SUMMERS: Oh, yes. We have time for a cup of tea, I think.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Oh, sure.
Dean's invited me for cup of tea with a nun. We find Sister Mary Leahy outside her donga at the port - her freight container office.
Inside, rows of Christmas-themed gift bags line the walls.
Sister Mary tells me they're filled with free goodies for the seafarers as she offers me a biscuit...
GEOFF THOMPSON: We're not taking seafarer's biscuits there are we sister Mary?
SISTER MARY: No, but if they taste of Palmolive soap, (laughs) they might have been mixed in with them. No, no. They're perfectly clean for the visitors. People would donate clothes sometimes good things like hoodies and T-shirts. The Seafarer's Love you know.
Carrying her care packs, Sister Mary is one of the few regular people still allowed to board the ships to talk to the seafarers... and she tells me they're desperate for information.
SISTER MARY: a lot of them don't really know how things are going globally with borders. They're always asking me will I be able to go home? Is the border open? Uhm... so they're not getting a lot of information.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Sometimes she'll be the only other face they'll see for months.
SISTER MARY: And like for 14 months, they're constantly passing each other, going up and down the stairs, looking at each other and having lived in a convent myself, I know that that can be a challenge, but I could have walked out the door. But they can't.
GEOFF THOMPSON: Sister Mary's small operation here at the port doesn't even have power connected, so she starts up a generator outside the office.
As we chat she wonders how we've allowed ourselves to forget about these people who bring us so many of the things we depend on.
SISTER MARY: What's the greed that's happening in society that these people somehow have to sacrifice their lives, for other people. Get the coffee. But, you know, I just. That's wrong, isn't it
GEOFF THOMPSON: Yes
SISTER MARY: That is slavery, I think. ... acceptable.
DEAN SUMMERS: We start to talk about modern day slavery and we're saying that and I know that Sister Mary agrees with me is that if somebody is finished their contract and they want to go home and you force them to go back to sea that's slavery, it's forced labour. Federal government is just silent on this. Just nothing. Not a pulse. Unless people like Sister Mary and others are banging on the door. And then no one's going to hear about it and seafarers will just be forgotten.