Marine Jobs – Seafarers Lack Privacy

Seafarers do not have a right to privacy and the customs authorities can perform searches of cabins or any other part of a vessel without any warrant or grounds for suspicion. It looks like this is not going to change any time soon as the Nautilus International union was alarmed as United States judges ruled that there will be no inspection free zones for onboard visiting foreign ships.

The court accepted that a  cabin  is effectively a seafarers home and that people’s  homes should  receive the greatest protection under the fourth amendment however it was then argued that given the  dangers we face and the national interest in conducting border searches to protect the Nation  and its people makes it unreasonable to  expect  to  require any sort of suspicion   to search  a cargo vessel arriving into  the United States. The US has the right under national self-protection to conduct a search without a warrant.

“Any expectation of privacy a crew member has in his living quarters is weaker when those quarters are brought to the border of a country” this is just something seafarers are going to have to live with as there will be no privacy laws in the near future

The worry is that seafarers are soft targets and that there are signs they are being singled out for intrusive checks and inspections even though there are no obvious grounds for suspicion.

Information used from Nautilus International

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