Your Passport Is Not a Reason to Keep You on Board

In Helsinki, chaplains and ship visitors from across Northern Europe shared how we stand up for that, and what we do when the gate stays shut, the ship is seized, or the smile hides too much.

In one region of Germany, the border police had made up their minds. Russian seafarers, they said, “will not get shore leave anymore because of their passport.”

Matthias Ristau, General Secretary of the German Seafarers’ Mission (Deutsche Seemannsmission), told the story to those of us gathered in Helsinki on 24 September, World Maritime Day. His answer to the Federal Police had been a maritime treaty from 1965 that few people outside shipping have heard of.

“Then I cited the FAL Convention11 FAL Convention: the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, 1965. The IMO, the International Maritime Organization, is the United Nations agency for shipping. and said, ‘Oh, it’s not allowed to discriminate seafarers just by the passport. You have to have concrete security reasons for that person or for that ship, but not just because of the passport.’”

“They didn’t like it,” he said, “but they admitted that they have to obey.”

The regional meeting of the International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) for Northern Europe fell on a day when the shipping world was talking about rules. The World Maritime Day theme for 2026 was “From policy to practice: powering maritime excellence”. In a recorded message shown to the meeting, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said that regulations “will only deliver safer, more resilient and cleaner shipping when they are implemented worldwide”, and that implementation “must make a difference when it matters the most, for the people working at sea.” His own summary was shorter: “Seafarers come first. Always.”

During the meeting, those of us who stand between those words and the gangway described what practice looks like. Our answers were mostly about trust, partnership and small things carried on board.

A gate that should be open – The convention

The Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, known as FAL, was adopted by the International Maritime Organization in 1965 and came into force in 1967. Amendments in force since 2018 require that seafarers be allowed ashore without discrimination, including on grounds of nationality. If you are refused shore leave, you can ask for the reasons to be given in writing.

Ristau wants chaplains to know it better. “Many of us know the ILO convention, MLC22 MLC: the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, the treaty of the International Labour Organization (ILO) often called the seafarers’ bill of rights., but there is also an IMO convention which is relevant for seafarers,” he said. In his view more countries have signed it “because everybody wants to facilitate maritime trade”, and on World Maritime Day he wanted the conversation to turn to shore leave: “We should talk about shore leave for seafarers and that IMO and IMO member states should enforce this.”

In Germany, he told the meeting, the convention has the force of law. That is why the police conceded.

Seafarers come first. Always.

He did not pretend the work is getting easier. “Geopolitical situation of conflict has a strong influence upon us as human beings, also in our daily life,” he said. Mission staff meet seafarers directly affected by the war, with “family members being killed at home in Ukraine, their homes destroyed.” “And we meet also Russian seafarers, and we meet others who are moved by the news they receive about the war.”

He described a balance: “We have to be strong and not to be too much driven by the fear of the enemy.” In this situation, he admitted, it is “a little bit difficult to remain calm and peaceful and welcoming. But that’s what we are.”

Trust is complicated – Malmö and Trelleborg

I came into this work as a chaplain to seafarers with zero knowledge and experience. In my desperation I reached out to the only person I knew I could speak to, Matthias, and travelled down to Hamburg to ask him: what is my job? What should I be doing? He told me I would learn on the job, but that there were two things to remember: “You have to represent the church to seafarers and seafarers to the church.” I have carried that with me, and day by day I see the advocacy we have to do both ways.

At a training course in Houston run by the North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA), I heard a deacon describe how the Coast Guard had asked him to visit an oil tanker seized by the US military and assess the mental health of the seafarers. Red flags went up all over the place for me. How do the seafarers on board that vessel trust someone who is brought to them by the Coast Guard? How do you even do that? I asked him about it, and he said: “Of course, you know, trust is complicated.”

The day I landed from that training, Mike33 Mike is Mike Josefsson, of the Seafarers’ Service in Malmö. said to me: “There’s a seized vessel outside Trelleborg.” Suddenly I was thrown into exactly the same situation.

In Malmö the seafarers’ chaplaincy and the Seafarers’ Service, where Mike works, lean on each other in ways that make possible work we could never have done separately. I don’t have the contacts with the Coast Guard, with Port State or with the pilots who go out to the vessels. Mike does. When the ship was seized, the supplies on board had all but run out. Through those contacts, and the ITF inspector44 ITF inspectors work for the International Transport Workers’ Federation, checking wages and conditions on ships in port. in our region, we learned that the situation on board was desperate. The Coast Guard, I have to say, were absolutely fantastic, and they let us take humanitarian care to the ship. We went and bought water for the crew, and we bought the provisions.

The rules still shape every gift. Legally we are not allowed to do anything that would assist the company, so work clothes are out of the question. But a tracksuit is not for work. It can help someone stay warm. It is a leisure garment, and that is a way in.

Not every door has opened. When later vessels were seized, I wrote to them and said: “What you need to do, if you want me to come, is request the visit of a chaplain, because if you request it, nobody can refuse it.” The reply came back: “Our company policy is that they will not allow any religious leader on board.” That is the situation to this day.

The question I raised about that deacon in Houston is the one I face every day. Suspicion. Mistrust. All we can do is serve the crews as well as we can. Yet the relationships with the authorities are growing. The Coast Guard has even phoned the church to ask us to take care of a seafarer and get them back to their vessel. We may not know each other’s names, but they now know of us. It is working, but it is complicated.

The parish is in the boats – S:t Petri, Malmö

My chaplaincy is based within a city parish, and I asked Ewa-Sofia Gudmundsson, the vicar of S:t Petri, why that relationship matters. Everyone who lives in or visits S:t Petri is part of the parish, she said, “and so are the seafarers.” Then she told me: “By your presence we remind ourselves that the parish is in the boats. And when you’re in the church you remind the parish that the harbour is a part of our congregation. So we can pray for the seafarers and also we wish you to pray for us.”

When I asked for her message to seafarers, she offered a welcome and a reminder: “You are a part of a long history. The seafarers have been a part of Malmö for so many years.” She asked them to “have a prayer, light a candle. And we are praying for you also.”

Not alone at sea – ICMA

For Jason Zuidema, General Secretary of ICMA, the work starts with a posture. “My faith, our faith, is something that leads us to want to serve others. We aren’t there to be served, but we want to go and serve. Go out to ships and with our hands open say: how can we serve? What can we do for you?”

The help is often ordinary. Shore leave, transport, “going ashore to buy some chocolate or some sweets. But mostly it’s about being a friendly presence.” He is realistic about the limits. “There might be some ports where it’s more challenging to have shore leave.” His message to crews is simple: “You’re not alone out there in the world.”

Behind the smile – The German Seafarers’ Mission

The German mission’s motto, Ristau said, is “support of seafarers’ dignity”, because seafarers often “are not able to live their dignity because they are living and working on board the ship”, cut off from the possibilities people have ashore.

At the meeting I had heard about a training course offered in Manila, so I asked Matthias for a message to Filipino seafarers. The course, he said, had given him much more insight into the regulations and situations behind the lives of Filipino seafarers. Chaplains who gain that knowledge “can understand more what is behind the smile of the Filipino seafarers.” He encouraged seafarers “to talk about what is on their mind, on their heart, and what are their worries and anxieties.”

Jars of clay – Evening Prayer · Temppeliaukio Church

On the Thursday evening the delegates gathered for Evening Prayer in Temppeliaukio Church, the Helsinki church cut into the rock. Early in the service came Psalm 107: “Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters.” Then came Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay.”

Bishop Bo-Göran Åstrand of the Diocese of Porvoo (Borgå)55 Borgå is the Swedish-speaking diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. preached. Thanking the chaplains on behalf of the Church of Finland, Bishop Åstrand told the story of a ship. In November 2020 the Baltic ferry Viking Grace ran aground off Mariehamn in the Åland Islands, and the bishop had walked down to the shore to see it: “One of the Baltic Sea’s most modern and impressive vessels had suddenly come to a standstill.”

The image was of people. “Even the strong can be caught by sudden gusts that cannot be foreseen or controlled. Even the experienced may need help.” And: “No one of us can manage this journey through life alone. We depend on one another.”

The sermon turned to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and its “treasure in jars of clay”, and to what it means to be human: “If we were made of steel, maybe we would be afraid, but not because we are humans.” And the bishop reminded the chaplains that “often the gospel comes close to us through small, everyday acts of kindness.”

Our calling is to be fellow human beings and companions on the journey.

The intercessions that followed prayed for seafarers’ families and loved ones “especially during periods of separation, loneliness and anxiety.”

The bishop’s line could stand as a summary of the whole meeting. Policy can open a gate, and a convention can make a police force back down. Then someone has to be waiting on the other side with water, a tracksuit, a lift into town, or time to listen. In Helsinki we talked about rules, but mostly we talked about those people.