BIMCO was among the stakeholders and companies that signed the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Well-being and Crew Change, in support of the seafarers and their wellbeing, during these challenging times.
To remind, the Neptune Declaration was launched on January 26, with more than 300 signatory-companies, with the goal to deliver on the shared responsibility to resolve the global crew change crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded at sea.
BIMCO Secretary General David Loosley commented that
Our industry is facing multiple crises: a crewing crisis and a piracy crisis – not to mention a long term climate crisis. The well-being of our seafarers is paramount to ensure safety. And only by working closely together and committing significant resources will we be able to overcome these challenges.
In the press statement, BIMCO expresses its goal on getting more key stakeholders to take the coordinated actions required to address the crises. This includes the charterers, national governments and the EU.
In addition, BIMCO supports the CommonPass Platform in efforts to create a secure vaccine pass.
Mr. Loosley added that “BIMCO is working with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Commons Project to see if we can use the CommonPass technology and platform to enable seafarers safe crew change.”
To better explain, the CommonPass platform lets people collect their lab results and vaccination records from trusted data sources and demonstrate their compliance with the health entry requirements of their destination; if they meet the requirements, the platform generates a simple yes/no CommonPass certificate that they can use to demonstrate their compliance without revealing any personal health information.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
Concluding, ECSA also expressed its support towards the Neptune Declaration, with the General Secretary, Martin Dorsman commenting that “ECSA stands behind our companies that have signed the Neptune Declaration, and the European shipping community fully commits to ensuring the rights and wellbeing of the seafarers who have been supporting the continuous running of the global supply chain.”
