IMO Sets Out 12-Step Roadmap to Free Seafarers

The IMO has issued a 12-step plan to 174 member states to free seafarers from their Covid-19 lockdown and allow appropriate exemptions for them to crew change.

The 55-page roadmap has been advanced by a broad coalition of seafarers’ unions, and international shipping industry associations, with input from airline industry representatives, international organizations, and the insurance sector.

The 12-step solution provides governments with the global framework to facilitate changeovers of ships’ crews, including the lack of available flights. The protocols set out the responsibility of governments, shipowners, transport providers and seafarers.

In two weeks’, time, approximately 150,000 merchant seafarers will need to be changed over to ensure compliance with international maritime regulations, with tens of thousands currently trapped onboard ships across the globe due to the continuing imposition of travel restrictions.

The issue is increasingly taking on a humanitarian dimension for those crews which have already spent many months at sea and which urgently need to be repatriated to their home countries and to be replaced.

Aside the need for shipping companies to comply with international regulations and contractual obligations, service periods on board ships cannot be extended indefinitely due to the dangerous impacts this has for the health and well-being of ship crew and, most importantly, safe ship operations.