Marine cadets want govt to open manning dept

Marine cadets at a press conference Friday demanded that the government should set up manning department for job placement of the cadets of Bangladesh Marine Academy.

Unemployment of marine cadets and junior officers soars amid the widening gap between supply and demand over the last few years, they said, adding that some 1,000 cadets from 19 private institutions, including the lone state-run Marine Academy are passing out every year while employment in the local and foreign ships is shrinking drastically.

With the local fleet of merchant ships getting smaller and the growing visa tangles in the foreign ships, the future of job market for the marine cadets has become uncertain, they said.

The number of Bangladesh merchant fleet (ocean-going) came down 38 from 68 at the end of 2012. Besides, there are visa complications for which many cadets are facing troubles.

The state-owned Marine Academy in Chittagong is passing out cadets six to seven times higher than normal, they alleged.

In the first 40 batches, a total of 2,412 cadets passed out from the Marine Academy while 1,325 cadets passed out in the last eight batches. “The Marine Academy is increasing the number of cadets gradually without even arranging for the next practical training courses for which they have to sit idle for months,” one of the cadets alleged at the press conference organized at Chittagong Press Club this morning.

The cadets said the Bangladeshi mariners are devoid of “on arrival visa or ok to board” facility which the mariners in other countries are getting.

Another crucial point raised by the cadets is fake CDC (Continuous Discharge Certificate) and fake Competency Certificate which shattered the jobseekers’ hope of getting jobs.

Even Seamen Identity Document (SID), a recommended document by the ILO (International Labour Organisation), was found improper by the ILO Mission during its visit last year.

They have demanded that the authority concerned remove the visa tangles and introduce visa with Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, India and the European Union at least initially to grab those markets. They also demanded assurance of joining ships from any port in the world.

The number of cadets in the Marine Academy must be reduced annually to 50 persons, considering the practical situation and by following accurate data until the existing jobless cadets are employed.

Employment through fake CDCs and COCs (certificate of competency) must be stopped and licences of those involved in issuing such certificates must be cancelled immediately. To identity fake certificates, the government should set up a separate booth in the international airports and introduce machine-readable CDC.

Imran Wahid Emon read out a written statement at the press conference which was also addressed by chief engineer Shakhawat Hossain. Chief engineer AHM Zahedul Alam Chowdhury, chief officer Md Ali Hossain, Tonmoy Roy, Atiqul Mostafa and Samir Chowdhury were present.

Source: Financial Express