The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on 01 December calling on UN Member States to designate seafarers as key workers.
Among the recitals to the resolution, the UN noted that it is “deeply concerned about the significant challenges being faced by the global shipping community to effect crew change and repatriation of seafarers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The resolution calls on all member governments to promptly implement “relevant measures designed to facilitate maritime crew changes, including by enabling embarkment and expediting travel and repatriation efforts as well as ensuring access to medical care”.
The resolution also calls on governments and relevant stakeholders to implement IMO-recognised protocols to ensure safe crew changes.
The UN General Assembly also requested that the IMO, the ILO, the UN Conference on Trade and Development inform the General Assembly at the seventy-sixth session (it is currently in its seventy-fifth session) to report on the crew change situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be based on the IMO’s Seafarer Crisis Action Team and through a dedicated section of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Review of Maritime Transport.
Welcoming the adoption of the resolution, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim said, “Sadly, hundreds of thousands of seafarers, who are vital to maintaining supply chains, remain stranded at sea for months beyond their contracted time. This is causing immense strain, fatigue and exhaustion and is unsustainable. I hope that this call to action will result in positive momentum to resolve the crew change crisis.”
Mr Lim added, “I am grateful to those countries who have already taken steps to designate seafarers as key workers and to all UN agencies and industry partners who have been working tirelessly to find ways to resolve the difficult situation. This is a human rights issue. Seafarers’ lives are being made impossible through the crew change difficulties and this can only have a detrimental effect on ship safety and on the supply chain, the longer the situation continues.”
Mr Lim added that key worker designation should ensure seafarers receive priority vaccination when the COVID-19 vaccination becomes available.
“I hope that the key worker designation will ensure that seafarers can be vaccinated expeditiously. This will go some way to resolving the ongoing crew change crisis,” Mr. Lim said.
In the Australian context, Shipping Australia Deputy CEO Melwyn Noronha said: “Whilst it is welcome that the UN has adopted this resolution, it is vital that all of Australia’s State & Territory Governments also recognise seafarers as key workers. They must facilitate crew changes and the ability of seafarers to go home to their families after many months of service at sea”.
