The United States Coast Guard (USCG) announced it is modifying the conditions of entry for vessels arriving in the US from the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire by adding an exemption for two facilities: Carena Shipyard and Terminal A Containers, Abidjan, starting from 3 January 2018.
Conditions of entry are intended to protect the US from vessels arriving from countries that have been found to have deficient port anti-terrorism measures in place. The following countries are therefore subject to conditions of entry: Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Gambia, GuineaBissau, Iran, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Nauru, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Syria, TimorLeste, Venezuela, and Yemen.
According to USCG, each vessel must:
- Implement measures per the vessel’s security plan equivalent to Security Level 2 while in a port in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. Under the ISPS Code, “Security Level 2” refers to the “level for which appropriate additional protective security measures shall be maintained for a period of time as a result of heightened risk of a security incident.”
- Ensure that each access point to the vessel is guarded and that guards have total visibility of the exterior, while the vessel is in ports of Côte d’Ivoire.
- Guards may be provided by the vessel’s crew; however, additional crewmembers should be placed on the vessel if necessary to ensure that limits on maximum hours of work are not exceeded and/or minimum hours of rest are met, or provided by outside security forces approved by the vessel’s Master and Company Security Officer. Under the ISPS Code, “Company Security Officer” refers to the “person designated by the Company for ensuring that a ship security assessment is carried out; that a ship security plan is developed, submitted for approval, and thereafter implemented and maintained and for liaison with port facility security officers and the ship security officer.”
- Attempt to execute a Declaration of Security while in a port in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.
- Log all security actions in the vessel’s log.
- Report actions taken to the cognizant Coast Guard Captain of the Port (COTP) prior to arrival in US waters.
- In addition, based on USCG findings , the vessel may be required to ensure that each access point to the vessel is guarded by armed, private security guards and that they have total visibility of the exterior while in US ports. The number and position of the guards has to be acceptable to the cognizant COTP prior to the vessel’s arrival.
