‘Royal Navy keeps us locked out’
COMMONWEALTH sailors are banned from parts of Royal Navy ships because of security fears, sailors complained yesterday.
Aaron Dickson, 43, who has been in the Navy for 17 years, said the rules left many of his comrades ‘embarrassed and demoralised’.
The petty officer, who is from Saint Vincent in the Caribbean, said: ‘When it comes to equality and diversity, that’s out of the window straight away.
‘If you have 180 people serving in a ship, doing the same job, you would think everyone would be allowed to go in every compartment.’
The Royal Navy allows only British citizens into the operations room and the secure information room on its vessels. That rules out Commonwealth recruits even though they are trusted to fight.