The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office in New York had announced a new Shore Leave Policy to restrict shore leave to crew members in the New York/ Newark port area. The new policy was to have come into effect on November 1st, however the policy has been revoked.
The guidance that was to enter into force required a minimum of five completed contracts for crew to be granted shore leave or off sign until further notice.
However, on November 1st, CBP NY announced the revocation of the new policy. As a result, CBP will now go back to issuing conditional landing permits processing off-signers.
In addition, CBP will also revert to the past practice for the safeguard requirements of off-signers.
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There were no incidents of deserters during the period of September 23, 2019, until now. What is more, CBP believes that the risk has been addressed, but it reserves the right to apply similar policies in the future.
Last year, Douglas B. Stevenson, Esq., Director of the Seamen’s Church Institute Center for Seafarers’ Rights presented the findings of the 2018 Shore Leave Survey.
A summary of the survey’s findings includes the following:
- During the survey week, 90.9% of the foreign seafarers on ships calling at ports in the US were allowed to go ashore. This data indicated a trend of gradual improvement in seafarers’ access to shore leave in US ports. Namely the percentage in 2017 was 90.5% and 89.7% in 2016.
- The most common reason, 58.4%, for denial of shore leave resulted from the failure of a seafarer to have a valid US visa.
Other reasons for denial of shore leave included:
- Exceeding 29 days in the US – 10%;
- CBP denial of shore leave – 7.5%;
- C-1 transit visa restrictions – 5.8%;
- Operational requirements of the vessel – 3.6%;
- Company policy – 2.7%;
- Unspecified – 12.1%.
