Malaysian Seafarer

Malaysia is facing shortage of seafarer on Malaysian-flagged ships. Studies conducted in 2001 have shown that about half of seafarers serving on Malaysian ships are foreigners.

According to records maintained by Malaysian Marine Department, out of 21, 682 registered seafarers manning the 4,343 Malaysian-flagged ships in 2007, about 11,482 were Malaysian and 10,200 were foreigners. This means the operation of ships is still very much dependent on the service provided by foreign workers.

There are several reasons for this problem. Some of them are:

• Lack of training berths for trainee-officer cadets
• Criminalization of seafarers
• Local seafarers tend to be marginalized especially in term if wages. Malaysian crews are paid in Ringgit but foreign seafarers are paid in US Dollars.

To address these problems, various proposals have been made. They include:

• To have training berth in foreign-flagged ships to ensure equitable remuneration for all seafarers.
• To build and set up more maritime training institutions in Malaysia with government subsidizing the training programs.
• To set up a national body that able to gather data relating to Malaysian seafarers and at the same time able to guide ship owners seeking suitable manpower.