An international round-table debate on the criminal responsibility of seafarers was held in the central Adriatic coastal city of Zadar on Friday.
The event was organised by the Croatian Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, the Croatian Seafarers' Trade Union, the Mare Nostrum association, and the Croatian Maritime Law Society.
The debate drew maritime experts, jurists, professors, seafarers, and representatives of the International Maritime Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, and the International Transport Workers' Federation.
The head of the Croatian ministry's Maritime Transport Department, Mario Babic, said every day saw a new case of criminalisation of seafarers as well as pirate attacks on ships and seamen.
We support every country to protect their legal order, but when it comes to the punishment and prosecution of seafarers, we demand that the particularities of maritime affairs be taken into consideration, as without it command responsibility is inappropriate, said Babic.
We ask for the respect of seafarers' human rights, the right to defence and a speedy and effective settlement of cases, he added.
Also in attendance was Kristo Laptalo, a Croatian captain who spent 17 months in a Greek prison for cocaine smuggling, although he was innocent. "It is necessary to change the state of affairs in which innocent seafarers get into trouble," he said.
(Hina)