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2 Critical Issues Affecting International Shipping During The Pandemic

This document discusses the challenges facing international shipping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it focuses on crew changeovers which have been difficult due to border closures and restrictions preventing seafarers from disembarking ships. This has led to crews working for months beyond the typical 12 month limit, threatening their safety, well-being, and the safe operation of maritime trade. International conventions establish seafarers' rights to shore leave and repatriation after a maximum of 12 months of service. However, pandemic restrictions have made exercising these rights challenging.

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Imam Firdaus
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37 views1 page

2 Critical Issues Affecting International Shipping During The Pandemic

This document discusses the challenges facing international shipping during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it focuses on crew changeovers which have been difficult due to border closures and restrictions preventing seafarers from disembarking ships. This has led to crews working for months beyond the typical 12 month limit, threatening their safety, well-being, and the safe operation of maritime trade. International conventions establish seafarers' rights to shore leave and repatriation after a maximum of 12 months of service. However, pandemic restrictions have made exercising these rights challenging.

Uploaded by

Imam Firdaus
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Shipping and COVID-19: protecting seafarers as frontline workers

2 Critical issues affecting international shipping during the pandemic

The critical issues that have affected the international shipping sector during the
pandemic include border closures to airlines and port closures to cruise ships; quaran-
tine requirements and restrictions on personnel crossing borders in some countries;
crew changeover and repatriation for seafarers, including those working on cruise ships
and yachts; certification and licensing of seafarers; and resupply, repairs, ship surveys
and certification.

2.1 Crew changeover

If shipping is to fulfil its vital role in maintaining the operation of the global supply
chain, it is essential to ensure that crews can be changed at the required intervals.
However, restrictions adopted at the national level, which have in some cases prevented
seafarers from disembarking to carry out crew changes, have resulted in seafarers’
service on board ship being extended for many months at sea, well beyond the
established limits. In many cases, it has not been possible to replace seafarers after
long tours of duty or to repatriate them by air to their home countries. Such situations
are unsustainable for the safety and well-being of crewmembers and the safe operation
of maritime trade.
In accordance with Standard A2.4 of the MLC 2006, seafarers have the right to
annual leave of a minimum of 2.5 calendar days per month of employment. The
maximum period of service on board ship for seafarers following which they are
entitled to repatriation, in accordance with Standard A.2.5, must be less than
12 months.
It should also be noted that, in accordance with the ILO Seafarers’ Identity Docu-
ments Convention (Revised), 2003, as amended (No. 185)3, seafarers are entitled to a
unique travel document. Although Convention No. 185 has only been ratified by 35
countries, its predecessor Convention No. 108,4 which is still in force, has been ratified
by 64 countries, making a total of 104 countries committed to accepting seafarers’
identity documents (“SIDs”). These two Conventions establish the right for seafarers
engaged in international trade to have access to shore facilities and shore leave, which
are vital for their general well-being, and therefore in ensuring safer shipping on cleaner
oceans. Being able to go ashore after the agreed period of service is essential for
seafarers. One of the important objectives of SIDs is to facilitate shore leave. A valid
SID, accompanied by a valid passport, entitles the seafarer to transit and transfer to
another ship, to transit to join a ship in another country or to be repatriated (see
Doumbia-Henry (2003). While public health concerns may well be a reason to deny
permission for seafarers to come ashore for shore leave, the refusal to allow seafarers to
come ashore for purposes of transit and transfer, as well as for crew replacement, even
in the context of the global pandemic, is inhumane and contrary to the letter and spirit
of these instruments.

3
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—
normes/documents/normativeinstrument/wcms_566427.pdf
4
The Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention, 1958 (No. 108).

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