The Croatian Seafarers' Union is demanding that part of the Black Sea be declared a combat zone

The Croatian Seafarers' Union is calling for a portion of the Black Sea off the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania to be declared a combat zone. This follows a drone attack on the commercial vessel Wine Trader, which left several crew members missing, including a Croatian citizen.

Last week, drones attacked the tanker Wine Trader in the Black Sea. One Croatian citizen went missing, and another was injured. There were a total of 12 crew members on board the vessel.

According to Neven Melvan, secretary-general of the Croatian Seafarers’ Union, the crew included two Croatian citizens, one citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the rest were citizens of Benin.

According to him, following the attack, the Croatian citizen and six sailors from Benin went missing. Melvan noted that, unfortunately, there is little reason for optimism regarding their recovery.

Following the incident, the union, through the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), called for the Black Sea region off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria to be declared a combat zone.

“People are dying even in the European Union,” emphasized Neven Melvan.

The initiative aims to grant seafarers the right to refuse to work on ships passing through the dangerous area, as well as to provide them with the guarantees and rights applicable to those in a combat zone.

According to Melvan, it remains to be seen whether there will be sufficient political will within the European Union to adopt such a decision.

The union hopes that recognizing the dangerous section of the Black Sea as a combat zone will help strengthen the protection of seafarers working in a region where there is a threat of drone attacks.

This was reported by Jutarnji list.

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