IMO – The International Maritime Organization Requests for Travel Ban Exemption for Seafarers

IMO PROPOSED THE RECOGNITION OF SEAFARERS AND MARINE PERSONNEL AS KEY WORKERS PROVIDING ESSENTIAL SERVICES

IMO Issued a Circular Letter to Governments Earlier This Week on the Matter

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has echoed earlier calls by shipping industry bodies for governments to recognize seafarers and marine personnel as “key workers” providing essential services and therefore exempt from national travel or movement restrictions.

A Circular Letter issued earlier this week specifically calls on governments to permit professional seafarers and marine personnel to disembark ships in port and transit through their territory (i.e. to an airport) to allow crews to be changed and seafarers to be repatriated.

The letter reiterates earlier calls made by IMO secretary-general Kitack Lim, who said it was “crucially important that the flow of commerce by sea should not be unnecessarily disrupted.” Lim added his personal view that seafarers were “on the front line of this global calamity” and called for a “practical and pragmatic approach, in these unusual times, to issues like crew changeovers, resupply, repairs, survey and certification and licensing of seafarers.”

Ship managers association InterManager is also exercised by the issue of crew movements but secretary-general Capt. Kuba Szymanski tells Seatrade Maritime News that there is “no blanket answer”. Instead, the association’s members carry out Risk Assessment on a case-by-case basis, he says, with individual decisions “reached together with seafarers.”

Szymanski relates how there are some cases where crew “can just step off and on the vessel” such as the ferry and liner trade; others where the ship “can call at favorable destinations and crew change is arranged with relative ease”; yet more where “charter flights are being arranged for larger number of crews of one nationality” such as in the cruise industry; and finally cases “where the best option is to wait and get the vessel to the destination where regular airliners fly.”

Source: Seatrade Maritime News. Continue reading…

Tags

Related Posts

Praesidium International

Your trusted security service provider

Maritime private security teams