SEAFARERS UNIONS ADD PRESSURE ON LIBERIAN REGISTER

SEAFARERS UNIONS ADD PRESSURE ON LIBERIAN REGISTER    The International Transport Workers’ Federation said the Liberian open register should not be allowed to continue operating, following the publication of a United Nations report that showed that money paid to the Liberian register financed the purchase of weapons in the region.
   “There is no mechanism to stop the continued misuse of funds occurring should the present state of affairs be allowed to continue,” the seafarers and transport workers’ international federation said.
   “We also note the proof that LISCR, the company running the register, is guilty of gross negligence in shamelessly ignoring where the money went and in making four payments which were used to buy and transport arms, in violation of Security Council resolutions,” it added.
   The International Transport Workers’ Federation opposes so-called flags of convenience such as the Liberian open register, where a large proportion of vessels owned by investors from the West are registered.
   The federation said that “the suggestion that ships do not have the nationality of the flag they fly and that the operation of the registry can be separated from the flag state flies in the face of international law and would invalidate the core provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other international treaties.”