IMO and ILO issued a joint statement, highlighting the need for prompt access for medical assistance for vital key worker seafarers.
Namely, the joint statement calls for port and coastal States to facilitate the prompt disembarkation of seafarers for medical care as a matter of “life or death”; to prioritize seafarers for COVID-19 vaccination; and to designate seafarers as key workers, recognizing seafarers’ valuable contribution to world trade.
Following the situation, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim and ILO Director-General Guy Rider say seafarers are facing difficulties in accessing medical care and highlight the “moral obligation to ensure seafarers can access medical care ashore without delay, whenever they need it, and to extend medical assistance on board should the need arise by allowing qualified doctors and dentists to visit ships. It is also important that a medical assessment be conducted prior to administering any treatment, which could include telemedicine assessment provided by international health providers”.
Receiving such care can be a matter of life or death for seafarers who fall ill while working on ships. The international community should do its utmost to support those who have maintained the global supply chain under pandemic conditions over the last 18 months and keep carrying on often despite enormous personal hardships.
…say the Director-General of ILO and the Secretary-General of IMO.
As enshrined in ILO’s 2006 Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006), it is incumbent upon Member States to ensure seafarers onboard ships in their territory are given access to medical facilities ashore, should they require immediate medical care, including dental care.
The legal obligation to render assistance to seafarers in distress, including medical assistance, is also an intrinsic component of IMO conventions, namely the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS); the International Convention on MAritme Search and Rescue (SAR); and the Convention on the Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL).
The joint statement once again urges governments to recognize the strategic importance of the maritime sector and to designate seafarers as key workers and to treat them as such by providing access to medical care.
The ILO and IMO heads also encourage Governments to recognize the role other marine personnel play in facilitating global trade and, wherever possible, to also vaccinate them on a priority basis.
Information received by IMO and ILO indicates that 24 countries have thus far answered the clarion call by implementing seafarer vaccination programmes, or signaling their intent to do so, in designated ports within their jurisdictions.
Concluding, the joint statement says:
We are extremely grateful to these countries but urge more to step forward to accelerate, in particular, the vaccination of seafarers serving international shipping. Government agencies, industry, labour and seafarer welfare groups continue to work assiduously to facilitate and/or deliver vaccines for seafarers. However, much remains to be done. We shall continue to work with our sister UN agencies, Governments and industry bodies to address the ongoing needs of seafarers and to safeguard their basic rights, so that they may continue to facilitate the global economy.
EXPLORE ILO IMO JOINT STATEMENT HERE
