The UN Development Programme has announced a binding insurance plan for the decaying FSO Safer, in another step towards averting a potential environmental disaster in the Red Sea.
The vessel, which contains 1.1 million barrels of oil, was left to decay after the war between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels broke out in 2014.
For the first time, workers from Dutch company Smit, which is conducting the salvage operation in the UN-led project to ultimately replace the FSO Safer with a permanent ship, were able to inspect the vessel's condition up close in recent weeks.
Another ship called the Nautica is en route to Ras Issa, where the FSO Safer is moored. The Nautica will temporarily host the barrels of oil while a permanent replacement is secured for the FSO Safer.
“We have a few steps to take care of in terms of insurance and other issues we need to resolve before bringing the Nautica into the area,” UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen David Gressly said at the second Yemen International Forum in The Hague on Monday.
“It’s a war risk zone which complicates the insurance process and certain requirements to qualify for the insurance and completing the registration process will be important.”
Commenting on what the UNDP called a “pivotal milestone” in enabling a ship-to-ship transfer operation from the FSO Safer, UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said: “Insurance became a critical element of enabling this salvage operation to proceed. Without it, the mission could not go forward.”
Former captain of the FSO Safer, Salvatore Calleri, who left the ship two days before the war broke out, said the vessel was in a good condition at the time.
“The maintenance of the vessel was halted immediately after I left the vessel,” he told The National.
“The Houthis did not permit anybody to board the FSO. All abandoned. No maintenance on deck and in the engine room.”
He added that he had stayed in touch with some of the ship’s crew.
Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Smit’s parent company Boskalis, said his team had found the ship to be in a better condition than expected and thanked the skeleton crew which had been keeping it afloat.
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
'Operation Mincemeat'
Director: John Madden
Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfayden, Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton
Rating: 4/5
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
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What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
