Industry bodies including the International Chamber of Shipping wrote an open letter urging Bezos to exert pressure on the incoming Biden administration and other leaders.
Shipping industry associations called on Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos to support some 400,000 seafarers stuck on merchant vessels because of restrictions at ports to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Industry bodies including
the International Chamber of Shipping wrote an open letter urging Bezos to
exert pressure on the incoming Biden administration and other leaders to
recognise seafarers as key workers, according to a joint statement on Thursday.
“The strength of Amazon’s
(and others’) supply chain is central to the success of red-letter retail days
like Black Friday,” said the letter, which was signed by the chairs of the
industry groups. “Without these seafarers, global trade as we know it would
simply cease to exist.”
“Unforgivably, more than
400,000 of our seagoing colleagues and seafarers, who underpin the movement of
goods around the world, are currently stranded on board their vessels, because
governments will not recognise their crucial role and prioritise them for
immigration and travel purposes,” it said.
Amazon didn’t immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Some of them have been at
sea for more than a year, the letter said, adding that about 90 per cent of
global trade relies on shipping and the success and scale of shopping events
such as Cyber Monday wouldn’t be possible without their work.
“Throughout some of the most
difficult conditions in living memory, they have continued to transport the
goods needed to satisfy the demand generated by platforms including Amazon,” it
said.
No comments:
Post a Comment