DAY One of the Seafarers Welfare Conference 2024 in Fremantle finished with a heart-felt look at the reality of ship visits, and what they mean for seafarers.

Reverends Garry Dodd and Un Tay from The Mission to Seafarers shared their thoughts on loneliness and connection for seafarers who, since the world changed with covid, have turned more to technology and relies less on human contact.

It was a recurring theme throughout the day starting with an opening address from the Right Reverend Jeremy James, chair of the Mission to Seafarers and the Venerable David Bassett, Bishop of Perth.

Keynote speaker was Ben Bailey, director of programme from the Mission to Seafarers in the UK, who looked at justice and welfare and what the industry can do to ensure the rights of seafarers are met.

It was a day for difficult stories and T’Aki Taman from Teekay Shipping took up the cudgels to share her story about being the only woman as part of an all-male crew.

A panel session delved into debt bondage and human rights of seafarers outlining some of the extraordinary ways seafarers were taken advantage of with Fuzz and Carolyn Kitto from Be Slavery Free along with Ben Bailey and Lailani Tolentino-Rahon from Mission to Seafarers.

The panel discussed the nature of debt bondage and modern slavery that has often trapped seafarers in exploitive and often abusive working conditions.

Another panel with International Transport Workers Federation and Dr Michelle Grech from the Australian Maritime Safey Authority looked at seafarers case management in Australia and what happens when a report is made.

Bullying and harassment are all too common on vessels where crews are isolated and Stella Maris speaker Bernadette Barry joined Christine Field from Hunterlink and Joanna Mycroft from Lloyd’s Register to discuss diversity and barriers to inclusion in the maritime sector in a panel moderated by WISTA Australia’s Carlita Bloecker.

Heather Turner from Brisbane’s Mission to Seafarers talked about the difficulty of finding volunteers with numbers shrinking rapidly in recent years and Steve Combe from the Dampier Mission to Seafarers spoke about the success of port tours.

It was a day that highlighted many of the issues faced by seafarers around the world and the work being done to counter some of the injustice.