The UN secretary general called on all countries to formally designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers, to ensure safe crew changes and release the 200,000 seafarers who remain onboard with extended contracts.
In a statement on 12 June 2020, UN secretary general António Guterres voiced his concern at the ‘growing humanitarian and safety crisis facing seafarers around the world. This follows another similar statement by IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim on 9 June.
This follows a call by ICS, ITUC and ITF in late May, urging Guterres to make sure governments were adopting the 12-step set of protocols issued by the UN’s own maritime regulator, IMO.
Unable to get off ships, the maximum sea time stipulated in international conventions is being ignored, with some seafarers marooned at sea for 15 months.
In particular, Mr Guterres called on ‘all governments to urgently implement protocols for safe crew changes, allowing stranded seafarers to repatriate and others to join ships.
Those protocols by ILO, IMO, ICS and ITF, should now be in place to meet the Joint Negotiating Group’s (JNG) June 15 deadline.
However, in an updated statement on 16 June, ITF noted that the deadline is over and that it will now help seafarers to start enforcing their right to stop working and return home, after governments’ failure to enable crew changes.
The world could not function without the efforts of seafarers, yet their contributions go largely unheralded; they deserve far greater support at any time but especially now,
…the secretary general said.
