Resolve the humanitarian crisis of abandoned crew on a Greek Vessel, Show the professional and efficient international image of Chinese maritime justice
2021-08-27
On July 26, 2021, Chen Chao, President of Guangzhou Maritime Court, received a thanks letter from the Captain of a Greek ship on behalf of 15 foreign crew members through his lawyer. Here the Captain said, “Your esteemed hard work and efforts on the subject matter indeed renders hope that we firmly believe our legitimate rights can be effectively protected by the Chinese courts. We are thankful to your judges for their work and efforts in handling matters related to our claims with professionalism, high efficiency, innovation and heart of justice.” So you may wonder what exactly happened. Let me review the case. On April 16, 2021, on the application of LOTUS OCEAN TRANSPORTATION (HK) LIMITED due to a charter-party dispute, Guangzhou Maritime Court arrested a Greek ship ANGELIC POWER, owned by a Liberian enterprise named ANGELIKI DYNAMIS INVESTMENT CORPORATION, who was ordered to provide corresponding security within 30 days at Guangzhou Port. Instead of receiving the requested security from the Shipowner, the Court received a request for help from the Captain of the ship, saying that the crew was at the end of their fuel, food, freshwater supply, and their survival was into great difficulty. The ship would be abandoned, and all the crew members needed repatriation as soon as possible. The maritime claimant is a Hong Kong registered company, while the Shipowner is a Liberian enterprise, the flag state was Greece, and the crew members were Filipinos and Greeks. No wonder this case attracted international community’s attention quickly at the very start. The Consulate of Greece in China, the Consulate of China in Greece, and Foreign Affairs Office, the People’s Government of Guangdong Province kept close contacts and communication over this case. We were on the verge of a humanitarian crisis and a real safety issue. By overcoming the complex factors including the COVID-19 pandemic and diplomatic affairs, GZMC had coordinated efforts with all relative parties at a diplomatic level and adopted a series of measures to resolve the survival dilemma faced by the crew and the ship. Firstly, the Court urged the Shipowner to perform his management duty through the captain and diplomatic channels, making it clearly understood that if within the time limit the Shipowner failed to do so, a third party would be entrusted to manage the ship. The Greek government was also urged to assume the relevant obligations as the flag state. Regrettably, the Shipowner did not resume management within the time limit. So, secondly, GZMC provided 70 tons emergency fuel on May 15, 2021 and a batch of daily supplies and common medicines soon afterwards in time, which resolved the safety risks and humanitarian crisis caused by abandoning ship management, and created favorable conditions for the follow-up work. Subsequently, GZMC initiated the third-party escrow process and randomly selected a third-party escrow company in accordance with the law, and then notified the Captain to accept the escrow company’s instructions and management, and the escrow company will regularly supply fuel and food to the ship. After solving the basic survival needs of the ship and crew, then there was communication and coordination issue in front of us. To speed up efficiency, GZMC established a Crisis Action WeChat Group with foreign affairs office, maritime safety administration and port authority to communicate and coordinate efforts. Under the coordination of the Court, the third-party escrow company, Guangzhou Port Authority, Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration and Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration had reached consensus on crew repatriation arrangements, ship maintenance work, and typhoon prevention safety management. Moreover, to ensure the ship safety, the court arranged 4 professional repairers who were also seafarers to board the ship to inspect machinery and to perform necessary maintenance in accordance with epidemic prevention requirements. In order to speed up ship takeover, with the support of Foreign Affairs Office and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, GZMC urged the flag state, Greece, to fulfill its responsibilities towards the right of seafarers to be repatriated under Maritime Labor Convention (MLC). We were encouraged by the moves taken by the relative Greek government departments to agree in arranging for repatriation of the crew and covering such expense, to confirm that the seafarers dispatched by the third-party escrow company could board the ship without the need to endorsing their certificates. So far, the takeover of the ship had been successfully completed. As the second batch of 13 Filipino crew members and 2 Greek crew members headed for home from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport respectively On July 22, together with the first batch of 7 Greek crew members being repatriated on April 29, the humanitarian crisis caused by crew abandonment of ANGELIC POWER had been successfully resolved. And then there was the case filing issue of unpaid wages claims, brought by 15 crew members against the Shipowner in June, which happened to be a difficult time in Guangzhou which saw an uptick in Covid-19 cases. Due to Covid-19 pandemic control policies in Guangzhou, it was impossible for the crew to go ashore. Because of imminent repatriation of the crew, the formalities of notarization and certification needed to be urgently handled. GZMC offered to provide the 15 foreign crew members with online case filing services through China Mobile Mini Court pursuant to Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Providing Online Case Filing Services for Cross-border Litigants, which had just come into force as of February 3, 2021. GZMC conducted authentication first. After passing identity authentication, the crew members entrusted two Chinese mainland lawyers to represent them in the proceedings, and they applied for online video witness. As witnessed by the judge via video, the 15 foreign crew members and the entrusted lawyers signed the relevant documents on entrustment of agency, and were not required to go through the formalities of notarization, certification, forwarding, etc. After online video witness, the entrusted lawyers may carry out other matters on behalf of the crew members. Our purpose has been always providing Chinese and foreign litigants with equal convenience and efficiency of case filing services, and in this case, we are proud to say the purpose had been achieved. At the 108th session of the Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) held on July 26 this year, the Greek delegation expressed its gratitude to the parties involved for their smooth cooperation in bringing the abandonment cases to successful conclusion under very challenging circumstances. Since the beginning of the security crisis caused by the abandonment of ship management and the humanitarian crisis caused by abandonment of crew members by foreign shipowner, GZMC had been working around the clock at all levels to find solutions. Thanks to and under the cooperation of all parties involved, the crisis had been properly resolved at last. The handling of the case not only increases the international influence of Chinese maritime justice, it also shows the world the professional and efficient image of Chinese maritime judges. The case sets a model for handling abandonment of foreign seafarers efficiently and successfully. It is also a successful example of China taking maritime judicial measures to protect the rights and interests of foreign seafarers during the pandemic. Currently, we are pressing ahead with the ship auction procedure, and hearing the disputes over unpaid wages justly and efficiently.