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Shipping organisations set stranded crew vaccination as a top priority

Shipping associations and carriers are concerned that the failure to deal with the current seafarer situation, leaving up to 400,000 crew stranded abord ships in some cases for over a year, could also lead to a failure to vaccinate crew in the coming months.

Crew change issues have dominated much of the industry’s Covid-19 response, with some limited success as some countries opened their borders to crew changes under strict rules. However, the international community’s failure to designate seafarers as key workers could mean that see crews slip down the priority list for the vaccinations expected to be rolled out in December.

“It is of the utmost importance that seafarers are more widely recognised as key workers and prioritised for vaccinations,” pointed out Esben Poulsson, chairman of International Chamber of Shipping, in an announcement after a of the Round Table (RT) meeting of international shipping associations.

The Round Table, which consisted of the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), INTERCARGO, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and INTERTANKO are concerned that there is now a risk that sailors could be forgotten again, if there was not a specific programme put in place to vaccinate seafarers as a priority.

“This is urgently needed to end the nightmare many hundreds of thousands of seafarers have endured over the last year, allowing them to just do their jobs,” added Poulsson.

Headlines have been made around the world throughout 2020 concerning the hundreds of thousands of sailors who are trapped on board their vessels, unable to disembark due to crew change facilities being made unavailable in the pandemic, according to a statement.

“The charterers’ change of attitude to actively support crew change is needed if they are to live up to their corporate, social and governance responsibilities,” said RT in its announcement.

Hapag-Lloyd’s representative told Container News that the German shipping company supports any move towards the improvement of the crew change situation. “Let’s not forget that our seafarers are true heroes, as they are the ones keeping the global economy and trade flows up and running every day!” he highlighted.

Hapag-Lloyd’s spokesman explained, “Many seafarers are still being forced to remain on board their vessels much longer than initially planned due to the massive restrictions on travel and crew changes in many countries,” he added, “We [Hapag-Lloyd] won’t stop doing absolutely everything in our power to help all our colleagues get on shore and safely home to their families. There is a constant exchange between our vessels and the ship management. We are further in touch with relevant government offices such as the office for external affairs.”

The RT has also asked Amazon president, Jeff Bezos, to take a stand for 400,000 stranded seafarers.

Shipping bodies call on Jeff Bezos to take a stand for stranded seafarers.

In particular, the leaders of the major shipping bodies sent a joint open letter to Bezos, last week, calling on the Amazon CEO to “use his influence and profile as the world’s leading retail entrepreneur, whose business relies upon global shipping, to take a stand for the 400,000 seafarers stranded at sea and exert pressure on the incoming Biden administration in the US and other world leaders to recognise seafarers as key workers.”

Esben Poulsson, who was chairing the Round Table meeting, said leaders like Jeff Bezos, whose company has seen increased profits during this challenging year thanks to “a great extent to the actions of seafarers who have kept trade flowing,” have to strongly support the many seafarers who “despite being in effect trapped by the crew change crisis have continued to perform their duties.”

The RT’s letter to Bezos was the upshot of the virtual meeting, in which the heads of the shipping organisations discussed the most critical issues of the industry, one of them was the climate crisis.

Regarding the continuing issue of the control of the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the wider impact on the environment, the shipping bodies have welcomed the recent progress at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) MEPC 75 meeting, “but the immediate need for a large-scale injection of research and political will was obvious for real progress towards a zero-carbon industry by 2050 be made,” according to the Round Table, which said in its announcement it pledges to urgently work towards a sustainable and equitable future for all.





Antonis Karamalegkos
Managing Editor

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