Transport Malta to provide financial aid to Seafarers Centre in Valletta

Transport Malta will be offering financial aid to the Seafarers Centre in Valletta to help with its day-today running under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed yesterday morning.

The MoU was signed by Transport Malta chairman Joseph Bugeja and by the port chaplain Mons Fr. Joseph Borg, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Ian Borg also in attendance.

The Seafarer’s Centre at Ta’ Liesse in Valletta was inaugurated in 2016 and provides sailors with onshore accommodation, social support and also helps educate the local maritime sector.

Minister Borg lauded the importance of the work of seafarers, noting that 90 per cent of the products that the country imports and exports come by sea. He said that seafaring presents many risks and challenges, and yet these workers continue to work and contribute to the economy and maritime sector in the most efficient means possible.

Borg spoke of the importance of the service that the centre provides to those seafarers who end up as victims of any incident. This is why, he said, the agreement to provide financial aid to the centre is important, and it sees the respective authority not only pushing the maritime sector forward but also making contributions as social measures to help that same sector.

Transport Malta chairman Joseph Bugeja said that the agreement continues to strengthen the relationship between the authority and the centre, and continues to foster the principles of social contribution that the authority believes in so much.

Port chaplain Mons Fr. Joseph Borg explained that the centre provides help in cases such as when the Hephaestus ended up grounded in Qawra, and in which case the crew of the same ship were welcomed at the centre and provided with a place to sleep and food to eat amongst other services.

Fr. Borg thanked the Minister and the Chairman and all those present for the aid that is being bestowed unto the centre so that it can offer more services to the seafarers who shelter in it.