Following COVID-19 outbreak and the crew change matter that has brought, InterManager wrote an open letter to the Secretary-General of IMO, Mr Kitack Lim, urging about Singaporean seafarers’ repatriation issue.
In fact, several days ago Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore announced that will give priority to applications from Singapore-registered ships and applications for sign-off crew only (i.e. without signing-on new crew). As for all other cases, MPA will consider several circumstances for crew change application.
In light of the situation, InterManager’s Secretary-General Capt. Kuba Szymanski noted:
If the same rules issued by the MPA of Singapore were applied to all Flag States, it would pose a very dangerous narrative, as ships of other Flag States would not be allowed to perform crew changes anywhere in the world.
We – ship managers – would be unable to change off-signing crew because they would immediately be in breach of safe manning regulations.
We completely understand the concerns that Singapore has, and we support their efforts to look after their citizens. However, no ships means no supplies, so a collaboration between the shipping sector and local administration is of paramount importance, and needs to be a two-way street.
What is more, MPA of Singapore forced new measures on 24th July in light of a resurgence of coronavirus cases, which included isolation periods for on-boarding and off-boarding crews, as well as virus testing.
Following the above, InterManager considers that the restrictions imposed on non-Singapore-registered vessels creates a several issues to the safety of seafarers, and presents a significant breach of seafarers’ humanitarian rights.
Recommendations suggested by the MPA are not practical, and InterManager is encouraging anyone who did manage to carry out crew changes in Singapore to get in touch in order to keep a good record of the scale of the problem. Presently, our records show zero crew changes for non-Singapore ships, for both on and off-signing crew changes
…Capt. Kuba Szymanski concluded.