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Somewhat subsumed by the African piracy story and the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean has been the ongoing and intensifying global issue of stowaways aboard commercial ships.
It is no new phenomenon – there have been stowaways as long as there have been ships – but shipping experts believe the practice has entered a new and intensified phase, adding unprecedented costs and difficulties to the business of shipping.
South African ports are considered global hotspots of stowaway access, with Cape Town leading the world in stowaway incidents in 2014 (according to the International Marine Organization’s [IMO’s] statistics for that year). As a crucible of stowaways Africa leads the other continents by quite a margin (81%, again according to IMO statistics for 2014).
To give some sense of how costly stowaways are for the shipping industry, consider that the Swedish P&I club – one of about a dozen mutual associations providing liability insurance to the shipping industry – worked out that the average cost per stowaway case in 2014 was $38 500, or just over half a million rand.
But there are also non-financial costs for seafarers.
“The stowaways don’t understand the problems that they cause for the ships,” said a Western Cape-based shipping agent, speaking on condition of anonymity (the stowaway issue is a highly sensitive one).
“Depending on the journey, stowaways can be aboard ships for weeks, and in that time they have to be fed daily, kept locked up, and a crewman delegated to monitor them, primarily to ensure the stowaway doesn’t commit suicide,” said the agent.
For governments the stowaway issue is tricky for a few reasons. For starters, South Africa, for example, is a signatory to the International Shipping and Port Security (ISPS) code, which sets basic requirements for port security, such as CCTV surveillance, perimeter security fencing and around-the-clock guarding.
The development of the ISPS started in the 1990s but the US government fast-tracked its ratification after 9/11, by stipulating that any ship wishing to dock in a US port, having previously docked in any country which was not a signatory to the code, would be denied harbour. All ships dock in US ports sooner or later, and so ratification by coastal nations was fairly universal.
For the SA government to subsequently admit that foreign-born stowaways are accessing national ports with relative ease would be both an embarrassment and a threat to trade. It would also make it awkward for the South African government to continue to refuse a share of the costs of “processing” stowaway cases, which are significant, as previously mentioned.
The average cost per stowaway case in South Africa is not as high as in other parts of the world (shipping agents say the average cost per case presently falls between $10 000 and $12 000) given the relative ease with which Tanzanians can be flown back to Julius Nyerere International in Dar es Salaam from OR Tambo International in Johannesburg.
There are many hidden costs, however. Money almost always changes hands off the books, as stowaways have learnt they can jam up shipping schedules by claiming they are asylum seekers from one or other of Africa’s war-torn countries.
Shipmasters and agents have found that, rather than initiate an investigation into the veracity of the stowaways’ claims – a process which can take weeks – it is far cheaper to part with a few thousand dollars in bribe money ($8 000 is the highest bribe amount I have personally verified) in exchange for the stowaway admitting their true identity and nationality, thereby enabling shipping agents to arrange for deportation.
Variations of such strategies have been noted in other parts of the world, leading Michael Heads of P&I Associates to assert, in a February article published in Maritime Review Africa, that “in East, South and West Africa we have now moved away from the period of disenfranchised people seeking a better life, to the age of the professional stowaway – or someone who looks at being a stowaway as a means to earn a living”.
Stowaway strategies have become more sophisticated, almost certainly in correlation with the increasing securitisation of ports and national borders. It is also true that extortion is a strategy on the rise (though probably secondary to the hope of getting some place new, and making “a better life”).
The business of stowaways
These realities have led to the development of an entire ecology of new service providers to the shipping industry, including ship retro-fitters (modifications to ships can prevent stowaways from accessing certain ship areas); technology innovators (carbon dioxide measuring devices have been designed, which help to detect the presence of humans on ships); privately contracted armed security personnel providers; stowaway detection outfits and deportee escort services.
Certain embassies even get a share by charging ship insurers high sums for the processing of emergency travel documents for stowaways, often within 24 hours (SA’s immigration laws make it illegal for any individual to disembark in South African ports without documentation). In some countries, and South Africa is one, these sub-sectors have grown to a point where some industry insiders worry their existence merely serves to perpetuate the problem.
The interests of the shipping industry and the “anti-stowaway” services industry are at odds, after all.
An example: the owner of a well-established “stowaway detection” company, contracted by shipping companies to sweep ships for stowaways ahead of departure, confessed that information about stowaway methods is routinely withheld from harbour security teams.
“If stowaways can access ports this is obviously good for business, so we don’t give the harbour security too much advice concerning how they gain entry,” he said.
Stowaway detection/security service costs range from R15 000 to R30 000 per ship docking in a South African port, depending on the services rendered and the nature of the relationship with the shipping company in question. Their primary offering is to search ships for stowaways, usually using dogs (the Jack Russell breed is favoured, for its ability to access small spaces). This “canine support” is often worked into company names, which include the likes of Seek&Bark, and Stowaway Search Dogs.
Ten years ago very few shipping companies engaged such services. Today most companies have built these services into their standard operating costs. It makes perfect sense to do so, since the root cause of the stowaway issue in SA is poverty in Tanzania, principally in Dar es Salaam’s unplanned settlements, with East Africa’s porous borders and its corrupt policemen playing an enabling role.
These are dynamics that are unlikely to change anytime soon, and although intensified port security and on-ship security discipline can, and has to an extent brought about a reduction in stowaway incidents, the phenomenon is more likely to intensify in many parts of the world than go away.
Sean Christie is a previous recipient of the CNN African Journalist of the Year Award, as well as the Taco Kuiper Prize for investigative journalism. His book Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard, is scheduled for release in 2016 by Jonathan Ball Publishers.
This is a shortened version of an article that originally appeared in the 23 June edition of finweek. Buy and download the magazine here.
