NATIONAL MARITIME DAY, 2015

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

For over two centuries, proud mariners have set sail in defense of our people and in pursuit of opportunity.  Through periods of conflict and times of peace, our Nation has relied on the United States Merchant Marine to transport goods to and from our shores and deliver troops and supplies around the world.  On National Maritime Day, we honor the women and men who take to the seas to boost our economy and uphold the values we cherish.

Our Nation is forever indebted to the brave privateers who helped secure our independence, fearlessly supplying our Revolutionary forces with muskets and ammunition.   

Throughout history, their legacy has been carried forward by courageous seafarers who have faithfully served our Nation as part of the United States Merchant Marine -- bold individuals who emerged triumphant in the face of attacks from the British fleet in the War of 1812, and who empowered the Allied forces as they navigated perilous waters during World War II.  Today, patriots who share their spirit continue to stand ready to protect our seas and the livelihoods they support.

Ninety percent of the world's commerce moves by sea, and businesses across our country rely on domestic and international trade every day.  Helping to protect our vital shipping routes, Merchant Mariners are critical to our effort to combat piracy and uphold the maritime security on which the global supply chain relies.  And in times of war or national emergency, they bolster our national security as a "fourth arm of defense."  Whether transporting commercial goods or military equipment, battling tough weather or enemy fire, they strive and sacrifice to secure a brighter future for all Americans.  On this day, we reaffirm the importance of their contributions and salute all those who serve this noble cause.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 20, 1933, has designated May 22 of each year as "National Maritime Day," and has authorized and requested the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for its appropriate observance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 22, 2015, as National Maritime Day.  I call upon the people of the United States to mark this observance and to display the flag of the United States at their homes and in their communities.  I also request that all ships sailing under the American flag dress ship on that day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth.

BARACK OBAMA

On May 22 the United States will honor the men and women of the merchant marine who toil at sea to boost the U.S. economy and who have been instrumental throughout history in upholding American liberties.

National Maritime Day traces its history back to 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt, with Congressional support, set aside May 22 as National Maritime Day. The date was chosen to coincide with the departure of the steamship SS Savannah from its homeport in Savannah, Georgia to Liverpool, England.  According to MARAD, "[The ship] was an impressive achievement, one that signaled the beginning of the era of steam, and American technological leadership."

In the later part of the twentieth century, the day has overwhelmingly become a celebration of the Merchant Marines. Following WWII, merchant mariners coming back from the war were not given veteran's benefits and were excluded from veteran memorial celebrations.  

However, the accomplishments of the merchant marines in the war were tremendous. MARAD has commented that, "the merchant marine and American shipyards were crucial to victory in World War II. Then, as now, the United States Armed Forces could not fight a war overseas without the merchant marine and commercial ships to carry the tanks and torpedoes, the bullets and the beans."

 Over the course of the war, the U.S. Merchant Marines carried over 270-billion tons of cargo, which in 1945 averaged out to 17-million pounds of cargo per hour. The Merchant Marines were the first to go to war, with merchant ships sunk even before the U.S. officially entered combat. They also were the last to leave the war effort, transporting the final troops back home after the war. Around one in 30 Merchant Mariners died serving his country, with a higher casualty rate than any of the Armed Forces save the Marines. MARAD has termed National Maritime Day as Merchant Marine Memorial Day because of the unsung sacrifice of so many in the Merchant Marines.  

Commercial Maritime Now

Currently, there is much on the horizon for the U.S. commercial maritime industry. Around ninety percent of global commerce take place by sea. Additionally, the United States is one of the largest importers and exporters of goods and is set to become an even larger maritime power with the opening of the expanded Panama Canal in 2016. A recent study of transportation methods has found that marine freight carriers greatly outpaces both truck and rail transportation in efficiency.

In President Barrack Obama's 2015 National Maritime Proclamation he praised over 200 years of merchant mariners by saying,

"Our Nation is forever indebted to the brave privateers who helped secure our independence, fearlessly supplying our Revolutionary forces with muskets and ammunition.  Throughout history, their legacy has been carried forward by courageous seafarers who have faithfully served our Nation as part of the United States Merchant Marine -- bold individuals who emerged triumphant in the face of attacks from the British fleet in the War of 1812, and who empowered the Allied forces as they navigated perilous waters during World War II.  Today, patriots who share their spirit continue to stand ready to protect our seas and the livelihoods they support."

National Maritime Day will be observed across the country in a variety of ways. Many ports host open houses and special celebrations and Propeller Clubs all over the United States hold special luncheons. At Merchant Marine Memorials, such as the one in New York City, and the one in San Pedro, California, memorial observances are held.

The president has also called upon people in the United States to display the U.S. flag at their homes and communities and has requested that all ships sailing under the American flag dress ship on that day.

Ships carrying rescued migrants arrive in Italian ports; Eight more suspected of human trafficking detained in Sicily.

As many as 5,000 migrants a week could arrive in Italy by sea from North African ports in the next five months unless something is done about the issue, according to an interior ministry projection.

The figures, published on Thursday by the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero and confirmed by a ministry source, estimated that as many as 200,000 could arrive by the end of this year.

Arrivals of migrants usually spike in the spring and summer months because of better weather in the Mediterranean but the situation is expected to worsen because of growing lawlessness and anarchy in Libya, from where most of the migrants depart.

Up to 900 people were feared dead after their boat sank on its way to Europe from Libya at the weekend including many women and children locked below deck, prompting calls for joint action to stop the flow of migrants fleeing war and hardship in Africa.

The deaths, in what appears to have been the worst disaster ever among migrants fleeing by sea to Europe from north Africa, caused shock in Europe where a decision to scale back naval operations last year seems to have increased the risks for migrants without reducing their numbers.

Italy shut down its "Mare Nostrum" mission that was credited with saving the lives of more than 100,000 migrants last year because other EU countries refused to pay for it.

It was replaced with a smaller EU scheme whose main focus is to patrol the bloc's borders, after some countries argued saving migrants encouraged more to come.

EU leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday were expected to reverse that decision.

In Malta on Thursday morning, an inter-religious service was held for 24 victims of the disaster. It was attended by Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.

Some 1,800 migrants are reported to have died in the Mediterranean so far this year compared to fewer than 100 in the first four months of last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Two men, a Syrian and a Tunisian, were arrested in connection with the weekend disaster on suspicion of multiple homicide, people smuggling and causing a shipwreck.

As more migrants rescued in recent days arrived at Italian ports aboard military vessels on Thursday morning, police in Siracusa, Sicily, said eight Egyptian men had been detained on suspicion of human trafficking.

They said the eight were the crew of an Egyptian-registered fishing boat that had been intercepted carrying nearly 450 migrants.

An Italian navy ship arrived on Thursday morning in the Sicilian port of Catania carrying 220 rescued migrants, including four pregnant women.

An exhausted refugee on a stranded boat told a Thai news agency that life is slowly ebbing from the men, women and children on the boat he is on, one of seven boats unwanted by the nations of South East Asia.

Through a translator, he said: "There are 400 of us on board. Some are already dead, but I cannot tell you how many because I do not have the strength to move around the ship.

"We have been at sea for a month. This is a Thai trawler, modified to carry people. We are not sure where we are. We have used up most food and water.

"We beg for your help."

The conversation was first reported by the Phuket Wan Tourism News and then taken up by Human Rights At Sea (HRAS).

Phuket Wan rigged a connection between mobile telephones that was enabling the 15-year-old passenger, in a faint voice, to relay what information he knew about the fleet of seven vessels to an activist who speaks Rohingya.

"The boat has about 400 people on board," he said. "Thai and Myanmar brokers [the regional term for traffickers] were on the boat when we left Myanmar one month ago.

"We have been out of food and water for 10 days. When I last heard a figure, there had been 22 deaths on board. It's very crowded."

The boy says that the boat's engine had been sabotaged and the brokers had left the boat. He says they are within sight of land, but no boats in the vicinity appear to be willing to help.

He was speaking through one of three mobile phones on board. The Thai broker bought simcards to make sure we could contact relatives to demand ransom, said the boy.

HRAS Helps Verify Calls

On Tuesday, the assembled HRAS team were provided with the mobile numbers for two boats from which they were able to corroborate that the numbers were genuine and through third-party support were able to identify the location of at least one of the vessels in the vicinity of Lipe Island or Ko Lipe at the northern end of the Malacca Straits.

Ko Lipe is a small island in the Adang-Rawi Archipelago of the Andaman Sea, in Satun Province of southwest Thailand, close to the Malaysian border.

All information was passed to Thai authorities by regional co-ordinating sources.

Founder of HRAS, David Hammond, said: "Human Rights at Sea will continue to support all those organizations who have requested our contribution for as long as necessary. I am grateful to our extensive network of contacts for reacting so quickly with many long hours being put in to try to locate such vessels."

"My thanks also to those members of the shipping community who indicated that crews would remain vigilant enroute through the area. This is a perfect example of shipping bodies reacting quickly to a call from maritime human rights organizations such as ourselves".

Thailand Found a Boat

Meanwhile, Thailand reports that it has found a boat drifting off its west coast carrying 300 migrants but has refused to grant it permission to land, a senior police officer said on Thursday.

"We declined them entry to the country but we gave them food and water to adhere to our human rights obligations," said regional police official Major General Puthichart Ekachant.

The boat was found 17 km (10 miles) off the coast of the southern island of Koh Lipe, he said.

Migrants on the boat did not want to land in Thailand but instead wanted to go to Malaysia or Indonesia, said Somchai Na Bangchang, a rear admiral in the Royal Thai Navy.

"We did not push back the boat or kick them out," Somchai said.

Several thousand migrants have been abandoned at sea by smugglers following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR has warned the situation could develop into a "massive humanitarian crisis."

Malaysia will Push Boats Back

Malaysia said on Thursday it would push boats full of migrants back to sea, a policy that has drawn criticism from the U.N. refugee agency as thousands remained adrift in Southeast Asian waters.

The crackdown has made traffickers wary of landing in Thailand, the preferred destination for the region's people smuggling networks, and led to a surge in migrants to Indonesia and Malaysia.

"We are sending them the right signal, to send them to where they came from," Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.

"Their country is not at war. If there is nothing wrong with the ship, they should sail back to their own country."

Many of the arrivals are Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority from Bangladesh and Myanmar described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

An estimated 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya boarded rickety smugglers' boats in the first three months of this year, twice as many in the same period of 2014, the UNHCR has said.

The agency has called for a coordinated search and rescue operation.

"The first priority is to save lives," said Volker Turk, the UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, in a statement on Wednesday. "It is key for states to share the responsibility to disembark these people immediately."

Malaysia said the UNHCR should find another country for the migrants.

"I don't see why we are under pressure," Wan said. "We are doing what we think we should do. We have to consider what our people want to see us doing. They don't want to see immigrants come into our country."

Malaysian officials could not confirm media reports of at least two more boats with hundreds on board being pushed back to sea. "We don't have any information," Abdul Aziz Yusoff, commander of the marine operations force, said.

Thailand ordered a clean-up of suspected traffickers' camps last week after 33 bodies, believed to be of migrants, were found in shallow graves near the Malaysian border.

The navies of both Thailand and Indonesia said their policy was to offer food and water to migrants on Wednesday and not to send boats back out to sea.

But Thai government officials have said the country is not receiving boat people - that is why they are arriving in Malaysia and Indonesia.

More than 1,600 migrants arrived Indonesia and Malaysia at the weekend. Malaysia detained many. Indonesia provided food, water and medical supplies to around 500 on a boat off the coast of the northwestern province of Aceh on Monday, before sending the vessel towards Malaysia.

"There is some confusion on policy," Vivian Tan, the spokeswoman for UNHCR in Thailand, said on Thursday. "The numbers are quite overwhelming."

The United States last year downgraded Thailand and Malaysia to its list of the world's worst centers of human trafficking, dumping them in the same category as North Korea and Syria.

U.N. Alarmed

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that he is alarmed by reports that some countries in Southeast Asia may be refusing entry to boats adrift at sea with several thousand refugees and migrants.

Thailand declined permission for a migrant boat to land on Thursday while Malaysia said it would push boats back out to sea.

"The secretary-general urges governments to ensure that the obligation of rescue at sea is upheld and the prohibition on refoulement is maintained," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

"He also urges governments to facilitate timely disembarkation and keep their borders and ports open in order to help the vulnerable people who are in need," he said.

Smugglers have abandoned ships full of migrants, many of them hungry and sick, following a crackdown on human trafficking in Thailand, the most common first destination for Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

An estimated 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya boarded rickety smugglers' boats in the first three months of this year, twice as many in the same period of 2014, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR has said.

The UNHCR estimates that around 300 people died at sea in the first quarter of this year as a result of starvation, dehydration and abuse by boat crews.

Ban "emphasizes the need for a timely, comprehensive, rights-based, predictable and effective response" to the crisis, Dujarric said.

The UNHCR has said several thousand migrants have been abandoned at sea by smugglers following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking and has warned the situation could develop into a "massive humanitarian crisis".

The crackdown has made traffickers wary of landing in Thailand, the preferred destination for the region's people smuggling networks, and led to a surge in migrants to Indonesia and Malaysia.

"We are sending them the right signal, to send them to where they came from," Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.

"Their country is not at war. If there is nothing wrong with the ship, they should sail back to their own country."

Many of the arrivals are Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority from Bangladesh and Myanmar described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

An estimated 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya boarded rickety smugglers' boats in the first three months of this year, twice as many in the same period of 2014, the UNHCR has said.

The agency has called for a coordinated search and rescue operation.

"The first priority is to save lives," said Volker Turk, the UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, in a statement on Wednesday. "It is key for states to share the responsibility to disembark these people immediately." Malaysia said the UNHCR should find another country for the migrants.

"I don't see why we are under pressure," Wan said. "We are doing what we think we should do. We have to consider what our people want to see us doing. They don't want to see immigrants come into our country."

Malaysian officials could not confirm media reports of at least two more boats with hundreds on board being pushed back to sea. "We don't have any information," Abdul Aziz Yusoff, commander of the marine operations force, said.

Thailand ordered a clean-up of suspected traffickers' camps last week after 33 bodies, believed to be of migrants, were found in shallow graves near the Malaysian border.

The navies of both Thailand and Indonesia said their policy was to offer food and water to migrants on Wednesday and not to send boats back out to sea.

But Thai government officials have said the country is not receiving boatpeople - that is why they are arriving in Malaysia and Indonesia.

More than 1,600 migrants arrived Indonesia and Malaysia at the weekend. Malaysia detained many. Indonesia provided food, water and medical supplies to around 500 on a boat off the coast of the northwestern province of Aceh on Monday, before sending the vessel towards Malaysia.

"There is some confusion on policy," Vivian Tan, the spokeswoman for UNHCR in Thailand, said on Thursday. "The numbers are quite overwhelming."

The United States last year downgraded Thailand and Malaysia to its list of the world's worst centres of human trafficking, dumping them in the same category as North Korea and Syria.

Hijacking of small coastal tankers for fuel/oil siphoning continues to be a key concern in Asia, according to the recent report by piracy watchdog ReCAAP ICS.

Figures for the month of April show 17 reported incidents of piracy and maritime crime.

Out of that two vessels were hijacked for their cargoes during the period while there were 14 robberies and one attempted robbery.

The geographical locations of the incidents shows the highest activity in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme in the Singapore Straits under cover of darkness.

The trend seems to be resuming from the first quarter of the year when the number of incidents in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS) doubled compared to the same period in 2014.

During January-March 2015, a total of 19 incidents were reported in SOMS, highest among the 5-year period.