Borders and Confinement in Seafarers’ Realities

Abstract

Seafarers may come across as highly mobile beings, shifters and movers of global trade, criss-crossing the oceans and living cosmopolitan lives across many borders. And yet, their actual everyday lives are riddled with (im)mobilities and enclosures. This chapter is framed within mobility justice in exploring seafarers’ contrasting realities of mobilities and confinement, freedom and unfreedom, structure and agency, which are determined by the demands of globalisation that assumes uninterrupted trade flows, fluid contract arrangements and speed. The narrative of this scenario normalises 24/7 activities, quick-fix ‘borderless’ mobilities and individual agency that is subdued by the demands of trade and the confinement of the ship space. While these scenarios are quite problematic under usual conditions, the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated these situations. This chapter will highlight a number of injustices involved in seafarers’ mobilities to show the difficult and confined scenarios they have to endure.