<\/p>\n
Some\u00a0seafarers have\u00a0now been\u00a0on board their ships for more than 17 months,\u00a0exceeding\u00a0the 11-months limit set out in the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said, urging governments to act on the crew change crisis.<\/p>\n
\u00a0It has been almost six months since COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic. The resulting travel restrictions, limited number of flights and government lockdowns disabling crew changes have created a humanitarian crisis at sea.<\/p>\n
More than\u00a0300,000 seafarers and marine personnel\u00a0are estimated to be stranded at sea and unable to be repatriated despite\u00a0the\u00a0expiry of their\u00a0contracts.\u00a0A similar number of seafarers have been unable to join ships and relieve them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Lim said that many\u00a0have been\u00a0denied proper access to medical care and shore leave, in breach of their rights under the MLC and other international instruments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The statement echoes concerns of numerous industry bodies on the impact of the situation on seafarers\u2019\u00a0health and\u00a0wellbeing, but also for the safety of shipping.<\/p>\n
“Overly\u00a0fatigued\u00a0and mentally exhausted\u00a0seafarers\u00a0are\u00a0being\u00a0asked to continue operating vessels,\u00a0increasing\u00a0the risk of\u00a0shipping\u00a0casualties,” <\/em>the statement reads. <\/p>\n \u201cIf\u00a0the crew change crisis is not resolved soon, ships will no longer be able to operate safely pursuant to the organization\u2019s regulations and guidelines, further exacerbating the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d <\/em>Lim pointed out.<\/p>\n The call is being made on the back of a major environmental disaster in Mauritius caused by the Wakashio Capesize bulker, whose crew have been on board past the expiry of their contracts.<\/p>\n An investigation into the cause of the grounding and the oil spill is underway, however, preliminary findings from Panama show that the grounding could have been prevented if the crew hadn’t diverted from its course in an attempt to pick up Internet signal from the coast.<\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n IMO Secretary-General\u00a0said\u00a0that resolving the crew change crisis will require a \u201cwhole of government\u201d approach involving several ministries.<\/p>\n \u00a0He reiterated his call to all member states to designate seafarers as key workers providing an essential service, and to implement the IMO-approved Protocols to allow for safe and secure crew changes. He also insisted on the importance\u00a0of\u00a0removing\u00a0other barriers to crew changes, such as visa and travel restrictions, and\u00a0of providing\u00a0seafarers with immediate access to medical care and medical facilities on shore, when needed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n Lim has\u00a0invited member states\u00a0to raise the issue of seafarers and the crew change crisis\u00a0during the upcoming High-Level Week of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly,\u00a0beginning on September 22, 2020.<\/p>\n ILO,\u00a0IMO\u00a0and the UN Global Compact\u00a0will host\u00a0a side event during that week\u00a0in order\u00a0to raise the visibility of the crew change crisis on World Maritime Day September\u00a024, 2020.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The post IMO Secretary-General warns of increasing risk of casualties as some seafarers are stuck at sea for over 17 months<\/a> appeared first on Offshore Energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n world maritime news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some\u00a0seafarers have\u00a0now been\u00a0on board their ships for more than 17 months,\u00a0exceeding\u00a0the 11-months limit set out in the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said, urging governments to act on the crew change crisis. \u00a0It has been almost six months since COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic. The resulting travel restrictions, limited number of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[11065,832,8055,2123,87,997,540,4152,4342,2616],"class_list":["post-17218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maritime-news","tag-casualties","tag-imo","tag-increasing","tag-months","tag-risk","tag-sea","tag-seafarers","tag-secretarygeneral","tag-stuck","tag-warns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/17219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tPanama says improper charts, course deviation, and poor seamanship led to Wakashio’s grounding
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