Capt. Peter Lange of South Pacific Marine Service, the agency that recruits seamen for oversees shippers, said the Columbus Line decision was made after another three I-Kiribati seamen were caught drug smuggling in the port of Philadelphia in August.
“The trio were crew on a Columbus Line ship, Cap San Augustin, the same ship where three previous I-Kiribati seamen, were caught for the same crime,” Lange said.
Because of this illegal action by the Kiribati seamen, the Cap San Augustine has been blacklisted in the U.S.
“The Columbus Line ship was instructed not to allow its crew to take shore leave when arriving at any U.S. sea port until permission is granted by immigration and other related authorities,” Lange said. “Crew guests will also not be allowed to board the ship and the captain should report to authorities before departing the United States,” the SPMS Kiribati branch manager added.
Columbus Line is very frustrated with I-Kiribati seamen for repeating the same mistake that landed some of their fellow countrymen in U.S. prisons with long-term sentences, he said.
“This is also the first time a ship belonging to Columbus Line had been blacklisted in the States for the faults of I-Kiribati seamen,” he said.
Lange said the replacement of the 12 I-Kiribati seamen working now aboard Cap San Augustine will take place very soon and that will be the last I-Kiribati batch from Cap San Augustine.
SPMS is studying this case very closely before making moves to safeguard job opportunities for future I-Kiribati seamen being trained in its Marine Training Center, at the main seaport of Kiribati, Betio, in South Tarawa.
The three I-Kiribati drug smugglers are in jail in Philadelphia awaiting court hearing.
