Over 400 companies have formally vowed to help resolve the crew crisis by signing up to the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change.
Shipping Australia is one of the signatories.
According to the ILO, about 300,000 seafarers are trapped on vessels and 300,000 more seafarers ashore are facing financial ruin if they can’t go to work.
The crisis has been caused by government responses to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. Government actions include restrictions on travel, embarkation and disembarkation in ports, quarantine measures, reductions in available flights and limits on the issuing of visas and passports.
The signatories to the declaration recognised that there is a shared responsibility to ensure that the current crew change crisis is resolved as soon as possible. The signatories also believe that the most effective way of addressing the crew change challenge is by working together across the value chain with industry stakeholders, organizations and with governments to implement solutions that work in practice.
The Declaration urges the implementation of four main actions to help resolve the seafarer crisis:
- Seafarers should be recognised as key workers and give priority access to COVID-19 vaccines
- Gold-standard health protocols, based on existing best practice, should be established and implemented
- Collaboration between ship operators and charterers to facilitate crew changes should be increased
- Air connectivity between key maritime hubs should be ensured
Shipping Australia CEO Melwyn Noronha commented: “It is well overdue that all stakeholders, especially some governments in particular, recognise seafarers as key workers, and fulfil their obligations to maritime workers.
“This will enable seafarers to stay healthy and go home on well-deserved breaks. Compromising a seafarer’s health and safety could result in a loss of life and personal injury, catastrophic safety and environment disasters, and severe economic damage to countries such as Australia which so heavily rely on maritime trade“.
More details of the Neptune Declaration can be found here.
