Chennai, Dec 5 : Governments around the world flouting international maritime law and conventions and arresting sailors on criminal charges has turned sailing into a dangerous profession, a mariners' body said Saturday.

"Over the last decade, there has been an increasing tendency to criminalise mariners for accidents. This has been gaining ground not only in Europe but in Asia too. Several nations have chosen to ignore the international conventions they are signatories to, denying the rights of seafarers and not treating them fairly," S. Pullat, founder of Mariner Welfare Guild, told IANS.

On Seafarers' Day - first Saturday of every December - a group of sailors held a protest meet near the Chennai Port Trust to attract attention to the hardships faced by the seamen on high seas.

Pullat charged the Indian government of acting like many other countries in detaining overseas seamen while turning a blind eye the plight of seafarers who have been detained against the international laws and conventions.

Citing the case of Glen Aroza of Mangalore, who is detained by Taiwanese government for the past seven months, Pullat said: "He was the Master of Panama flag motor tanker Tosa and was arrested on the charge of his ship colliding with a Taiwanese fishing vessel killing two fishermen."

According to Pullat, Tosa was not in the Taiwanese waters but on international waters and the country's navy should not have boarded the vessel on the high seas.

He charged the Indian government has done nothing to secure Aroza's release.

Referring to the case of Sakhib Sakharkar, under detention in Algiers for the past 15 months, Pullat said: "He noticed stowaways on board MSC Shirley. When a search was mounted two stowaways escaped and one was found injured."

"The two escaped stowaways returned with police and took the injured man to the hospital, where he died. The police questioned the two stowaways, the Master, the Chief Officer and Sakharkar, and ordered the latter to be detained," he said.

Speaking of Indian violation, he cited the detention of two Chinese crew of Asian Forest that ran aground near Mangalore port recently.

The Chinese were arrested on the grounds of failure to minimise pollution.

The Mangalore district authorities want the ship owners to remove the 400 tonnes of fuel in the ship at the earliest as an oil slick from the wreck will be an major environmental issue.(IANS)