A group of leading shipping organizations and associations has sent an open letter to Asian governments, calling them to resolve the crew change crisis by allowing, among others, temporary visa waivers and a visa free transit area in Asia for seafarers.
The letter comes from representatives of maritime transport, including Asian Shipowners Association, ECSA, ICS, ITF, ETF, CLIA, WSC, IMEC, Intermanager, INTERTANKO, INTERCARGO, IPTA, BIMCO, FONASBA, IMCA, IG Clubs and The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and is addressed to Arthur Tugade, Secretary at Philippine’s Department of Transportation and Robert A. Empredad, Administrator, the country’s Maritime Industry Authority, calling for urgent action nationally and in partnership with other countries in the world, on the issue of crew change.
The call comes in light of a ‘humanitarian crisis’, as, currently, some 400,000 seafarers are trapped onboard due to travel restrictions and some of them have now spent 15 months or more continuously on board. Meanwhile, an equal number are awaiting to join ships.
In their call, the associations acknowledged the work of IMO, ILO and Asian countries over the past months to enable crew changes, but stressed “it is now time for the immediate involvement of the Heads of States and Governments”.
Specifically addressing the work of Philippines, the associations expressed their appreciation on the opening of the Ports of Manila, Port Capinpin in Bataan and the Port of Subic, in Zambales for crew change purposes, as well as The “Green Lane” adopted by the Philippines to make possible crew change for foreign seafarers.
However, the letter reads, the smooth facilitation of crew changes in Asia, is prevented by, amongst other things, the difficulties of seafarers in obtaining visas. The current practice in most countries, of issuing visas in their missions in third countries and on arrival in sea and air ports, is not functioning efficiently and will clearly not cope with the forecasted two-threefold increase in demand for visas per month in the coming weeks, in view of the backlog of crew changes.
We are therefore calling upon the Philippines to introduce temporary visa waivers for crew changes through appropriate means, to be implemented for seafarers holding a seafarer’s identity document issued in accordance with the ILO Conventions No 108 or No 185, or the IMO Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, or a valid ticket or booking with the ships’ agents as the guarantors of their bona fide identities.
Moreover, given the territorial limitation of such a waiver to the State granting it, the associations also call for cooperation between Asian countries to temporarily allow for a visa free transit area in Asia for seafarers.
Furthermore, the letter touched upon the limited availability of flight connections between world seaport hubs and the Asian seafarer supplying countries in order to effect crew changes.
We therefore call on the Philippines to create, in consultation with the aviation industry and other countries, the necessary conditions for seafarer air corridors between crew supply countries and major seaport countries so as to increase access, as soon as possible, to commercial flights.
The limited flight options also cause difficulties in aligning flights with vessel embarkation and disembarkation times, the letter notes.
Consequently, we commend the Philippines for allowing seafarers of any nationality to stay in the country until the arrival of the flight or ship without restricting the number of days. We call on the Philippines to urge other governments to remove national restrictions and to allow for seafarers to stay in their countries for at least 10 days for the purposes of on-signing and repatriating albeit restricting seafarer movement.
The call concludes:
In your position, you can make a difference in practice by using your diplomatic influence and importance as a major seafarer supply country to raise this matter at the highest level in meetings with other governments around the world. This will be extremely important to ensure seafarers, as essential workers for the global trade and economy, can be relieved without any further delay.
