- The victims have gone to court so that the company responds for not protecting them when they were on board.
 |
| US cadet denounces sexual abuse on a Maersk ship. / Sanford Heisler Sharp |
Two cadets denounce Maersk alleging abuse and sexual harassment by other crew members at sea
Hope Hicks, a young American cadet, has decided to sue the international shipping giant Maersk, alleging that the company failed to protect her from being sexually abused.
In a lawsuit filed last June in Nassau County (New York) Supreme Court, Hicks alleged that Maersk Line put her in harm's way while aboard a company ship as part of her cadet training.
Hicks initially reported her case in an anonymous post on the Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy website, saying she was sexually abused by a supervisor on the Alliance Fairfax ship in 2019 when she was 19 years old. However, he has now decided to make his name public to encourage those who have experienced similar situations to take action to defend themselves.
In her lawsuit, the cadet stressed that the company did not have a system at Alliance Fairfax to track or restrict the use of master keys, to which her alleged attacker and other crew members had access, so these people had access "without restrictions" to your room.
In addition, she pointed out that there was no Wi-Fi on the ship to communicate with the outside and that she was afraid to ask the captain to use a satellite phone, a situation that left her without the possibility of asking for help.
Read this also: The Russian Opposition Assures That Putin Is Torn Between Using Nuclear Weapons Or Accepting Defeat While His Health Condition Worsens
The Hope Hicks Story
In the aforementioned post, Hicks identifies herself as a senior at the US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, New York, which trains students to become commissioned officers in the military and Merchant Marine officers to work on ships that carry cargo and passengers around the world.
She recounted being the only woman on a Maersk ship during her Year at Sea, a required program when students work on commercial vessels.
Hicks said that after leaving a port in the Middle East, engineers on the ship forced her and her fellow cadet to consume a large amount of liquor in one night and that, after passing out, she woke up naked in her bed. "There was blood on my sheets and I knew immediately that I had been raped," she wrote.
"I was a virgin and had been saving myself, and as soon as I woke up I could feel that I was in a lot of pain and I knew exactly what had happened," she said.
There was blood on my sheets and I knew immediately that I had been raped
The young woman, now 22, claimed that her supervisor on the ship, a senior engineer in his 60s and the second-in-command of his department, had been sexually harassing her in the weeks before the alleged abuse.
According to what she said, the man who had raped her called her hours after what happened and asked her to go to her room, telling her that they had to talk. Once there, she accused him of sexual abuse, something that this man denied, stating that he had only helped her return to her room.
"Whatever you thought happened, you wouldn't tell the captain, would you?" were the words Hicks said the man said to him as he put his hand on his thigh.
When she got up to leave, the alleged rapist told her that no one would believe her. "Back in my room, I decided the only thing I could do was hang on," the post reads.
"No one was going to believe me, and putting up with it was the only option I felt I had. I was trapped," she said, adding that for the next 50 days she had to continue working for the man who had abused her.
Read this also: Drought Brings Sunken Nazi Ships To The Surface And Turns River Traffic In Central Europe Into A Minefield
Another victim of abuse
Hicks' attorneys also filed a second lawsuit on behalf of a woman identified as "Midshipman-Y," who said she faced sexual harassment and unwanted groping as a cadet aboard the same ship in 2021 when she was 18.
According to the complaint, "Midshipman-Y" was harassed by a crew member who was known as a violent person by other Maersk officers and crew personnel.
The judicial appeal highlights that the people on board the ship were supposedly aware of the harassment and did not intervene or report the misconduct.
"He would lock himself in the bathroom and sleep on the floor at night while holding a razor for protection," his attorneys wrote in the Nassau County Supreme Court lawsuit.
The court instructed the woman's defense to refile the lawsuit through a special process under the real name of the victim.
What does Maersk say?
The Maersk Line Limited company said in a statement that any such accusation is taken seriously. "We have zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or any form of discrimination on our ships or in our company," the company said.
The shipping giant said, "we will not tolerate any breach of our policies regarding the fair treatment of all personnel." However, he refused to talk about the investigation he has been carrying out on these complaints.
Five taxpayers were fired last February, three for violations of the company's alcohol policy, and two, including Hicks' alleged attacker, for failing to cooperate with the investigation.
Tags:
World