Bjørn Højgaard, CEO of Hong Kong shipmanagement Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, is blaming port states as the real cause of the ongoing crew change crisis.
As Mr. Højgaard wrote in a LinkedIn post, two years ago, seafarers were sent to a ship to relieve a colleague in a matter of days.
However, he adds that the “way we treat seafarers in 2021 is absolutely shameful”:
Since the pandemic started, crewing departments the world over have scrambled to facilitate crew change against increasingly difficult odds. Seafarers at home are often unable to get a contract, perhaps because they live in a country with a high Covid load. And seafarers onboard are increasingly being treated as pariahs
In addition, Mr. Højgaard mentioned that seafarers live with the “constant fear of interacting with possibly Covid-infected pilots, port officials, immigration and customs officers, stevedores etc., worrying that someone onboard might get a Covid infection.”
However, for the worsening of the crew change crisis, Mr. Højgaard believes that it’s not the ship owners and ship managers who are being difficult:
The real culprits here are the ports and nations who decide that, yes, they want the ships and their cargo, but no, they don’t allow crew change
What is more, mental health issues, including suicide are on the rise, while depression and apathy onboard is making navigation, cargo operations and critical maintenance more risky.
So where’s the outrage against the ports and nations that are the real culprits in this crisis? Nobody is refusing to deliver goods/cargoes to ports that don’t play their important role in ensuring that the 1.5 million men and women who serve onboard can do so under acceptable conditions
Mr. Højgaard wonders, concluding that “adding insult to injury, it makes absolutely no change to these ports’ policies whether the seafarers are vaccinated or not.”
Indeed, yet I wan’t blame Port States only, WHO too …. the rush of declaring pandemic at a global scale. What is most to fear is that no foundation covers the lack of decision or these so called restrictions in most cases … It is very possible to receive tourists and facilitate grand openings for some reasons, also it is very possible to travel in an airplane sitting like sardines in a can … yet it is not possible to sit or wait one or two days in a hotel ?!? There is no visible signs of Governments and Med world fighting to revert into normality ?!? …. This situation all over the world with very few exemptions (from few states only) is highly affecting not only Crew but their families and dependents as well.
i am totally agree with CEO i completed my contract long ago but my reliver is Indian first that was problem now in Hong Kong for bunkering they wont allow crew change and my ship going to wards Africa m totally depressed now