Brest (AFP)

One, two and sometimes much more: many sailors around the world have spent months at sea without being able to be relieved because of the measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, a "burdensome" situation to live for some.

"The situation is dire," testified on condition of anonymity a sailor from Bourbon Offshore Surf, a subsidiary of the French group of maritime services Bourbon.

"Physically, the work is hard in the long term", ensures the sailor in a telephone exchange with AFP from an oil platform off the coast of West Africa.

It has been carrying passengers for three months, from an oil platform to the African continent and vice versa, without knowing when he will be able to return to France, where he should have returned in early April.

"Family remoteness, cumulative fatigue, high risk of contracting the disease, no date of return ...", lists another sailor from the company, also off the coast of Africa, who was due to return at the end of March.

For the two sailors, the physical distancing instructions are "impossible" to respect. "Productivism takes precedence over security", regrets the second.

"Currently, we have around 350 sailors trapped off the coast of Africa, some since the end of December," said another sailor from Bourbon Offshore Surf, also on condition of anonymity, explaining having signed a confidentiality clause with his company.

"The disease has arrived on the oil fields", he worries, assuring that some sailors are carrying out evacuations of patients of the new coronavirus, information confirmed by the management of the group, which ensures that its priority today "is the safety of teams".

"Most of the crews have to extend their period on board, but overall the sailors understand this," he said, referring to "some reliefs for the past fifteen days and evacuations, case by case, for six weeks" among his 2,000 sailors currently at sea.

Some oil companies, such as Total or ExxonMobil, charter planes to repatriate their personnel. Bourbon sailors have notably been able to take advantage of it, but drop by drop.

- "closed borders" -

"Several thousand" of sailors are currently "stranded" on their boat on all the seas of the globe, says AFP Laure Tallonneau, inspector of the International Transport Federation (ITF).

If certain fishermen have notably been able to be repatriated recently to France from the United Kingdom, that remains "fairly minority", according to her.

"Some seafarers, those who cost the least and come from the other side of the world, sometimes cannot return home because their country is not able to cope with possibly contaminated seafarers," regrets the young inspector .

At Orange Marine, which has three vessels under the French flag, the Malagasy sailors, a small half of the sixty or so crew members on each boat, have not yet been relieved.

"Madagascar is completely closed, including for Malagasy nationals," confirms Didier Dillard, director general of the subsidiary of the historic operator dedicated to the laying and maintenance of submarine cables.

The company also encounters difficulties in relieving its French crew, more than thirty sailors, on board its cable laying vessel currently off the coast of Taiwan. "Many countries in Asia do not allow seafarers to take over, this is the case with Taiwan," said the leader, who is looking for solutions to bring his sailors back to France, possibly via Japan or Korea. According to him, they all left on a voluntary basis after being tested negative for Covid-19.

"French companies are making every effort to ensure relief in the best conditions, but are often faced with obstacles at international level linked to the unavailability of flights, border closures, the intransigence of certain authorities who refuse landings of sailors in their ports ", summarizes the professional organization Armateurs de France.

"With some shipowners it's going very well, but with others it's far from being the case," notes Pierrick Samson, secretary general of the National Federation of Maritime Trade Unions (FNSM) CGT.

"Sailors are likely to stay six months or more on board, some will fart a cable for sure!" he warns.

© 2020 AFP