Mr. Speaker, the tragic murder of the Romanian stowaways aboard the Maersk Dubai should be a spur for urgent action on the problem of stowaways.
The $7,000 fine on ships found to be carrying stowaways was intended to encourage ship captains to take all possible measures to prevent stowaways. However, not only does the fine encourage captains to do away with stowaways, in practice it is poorly paid crew members who are often held responsible by captains and who are in turn forced to pay the fine. Thus the fine becomes an incentive to throw stowaways overboard. As a result, far from being an isolated incident, the longshoremen's union reports that the tragedy on the Maersk Dubai is an all too common occurrence.
The current regime also offers inadequate guarantees that those accused of murdering stowaways on the high seas will be prosecuted. In the most recent incident there were authorities in a position to prosecute those accused. However, what would have happened if the victims had been from Liberia or some other jurisdiction without an effective authority?
The NDP calls on the government to review its current policy on stowaways and urges it to work in the United Nations for a convention for the protection of stowaways.