Georgian Sailors Brave Piracy, Bureaucracy

“How can I just wait, knowing that they’re living on bread and water and that no can say how long it’s going to go on for?” asked Natela Verdzadze, whose husband is among a crew of 18 held by Somali pirates for the last eight months.

Negotiations are under way for the release of Shalva Verdadze, 14 other Georgians and three Turks from a Greek-owned vessel boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden last September.

Whenever Natela visits government offices in the Black Sea port of Batumi, she is always assured that the talks are still going on, but that no terms have been agreed yet.

The only statement the Georgian government has made came from Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze in January. He said the ministry was in contact with the ship owners who were in turn speaking to their insurers, but he insisted his government would not talk to the kidnappers themselves.

The case highlights the risks that many Georgian sailors are prepared to undergo by hiring themselves out to anyone who will take them.

In 2009, Shalva Verdadze spent ten months in captivity in the Philippines along with 12 other sailors after they were accused of gun-running. They were eventually released when the ship’s captain admitted blame.

Five Georgian sailors have only just managed to escape from Libya, where they had been stuck for almost a year after being caught up in a commercial dispute. They lived solely on fish that they caught themselves.

Eight more were released earlier this month after spending two months in detention in India, where their ship had run aground.

Georgians are taken on as crewmembers on internationally registered vessels via intermediary companies which maintain lists of certified seamen available for work.

Even the worst-paid can expect to earn 800 US dollars a month – significantly above the national average in Georgia.

“When there’s no other way to feed yourself and your family, sailors will queue up to get work,” Anatoly Chijavadze, who heads the Georgian sailors’ trade union.

The union has set up a fund to assist the families of the 15 sailors in Somali captivity.

David Devadze is a manager at the intermediary firm that recruited Verdadze. His own son is among the 15 Geogians now in the hands of the pirates, and he says they were all aware of the risks but took the work because of the wages on offer.

Mariners accredited in Georgia now face new restrictions on the vessels they can ship with. Since a November decision by the European Maritime Safety Agency, EMSA, the European Commission has stopped recognising training certificates issued in Georgia. That means sailors graduating from training courses there will not be able to work on vessels flying under the flags of European Union states.

The Georgian authorities’ attempts to address problems found in an EMSA inspection in 2006 were deemed unsatisfactory.

President Saakashvili said the ruling would have a major impact.

“This decision affects not just sailors but their families. People may be left without food, especially in Batumi and Poti,” he said, referring to Georgia’s two biggest ports. “And since these are the people who buy flats, build houses, and hire construction workers, and who make a major contribution to the economy, it’s a huge blow to the Black Sea region and to the future of these people.”

Giga, a graduate of the Batumi State Maritime Academy, said the decision would make life even worse for Georgian sailors.

“The situation is worse in terms of safety. We sail on European ships anyway, but now we will have to agree to more dangerous work than before,” he said.

Giga, who is about to go to sea, is unsure whether the ship owner has even insured him.

“I’ve been without work for so long that I didn’t even talks to them about these details,” he said.

Natia Kuprashvili is executive director of the Georgian Association of Regional Broadcasters.