The initial seafarers to gain from using legal trip to adhere to the brand-new team modification procedure, established by the Singapore Crew Change Working Group (SGCCWG), ultimately got off the mass provider Genco Liberty at the Port ofSingapore The finalizing off team have actually finished their agreements onboard.
Neal De Roche, Executive Vice President, Wilhelmsen Ships Agency, claimed, “As an integral part of the Singapore Crew Change Working Group, (SGCCWG) we are very happy to now be coordinating the first full crew change, performed in line with the new crew change protocol we worked so hard to put together as part of the SGCCWG. It is encouraging to see how regulators, industry bodies, customers and indeed competitors now coming together to address such a critical matter, the welfare of seafarers. As port agents, we are committed to supporting the industry in any way we can to get our seafarers home, and new crews redeployed safely and efficiently.”
The nineteen-men Indian team will certainly currently return house through a legal trip from Singapore to Colombo and afterwards onIndia Their associates composed of fourteen Sri Lankans and also 4 Indian seafarers that came to Singapore from Sri Lanka early today, likewise through the exact same legal trip, joined the exact same day.
Image Credits: wilhelmsen.com
Captain Rajesh Unni, creator and also Chief Executive Officer of ship monitoring firm, the Synergy Group, commented, “At Synergy Group we have desperately been trying to conduct crew changes since the outbreak of COVID-19. In early March, we proposed the idea of a safe corridor for seafarers to facilitate crew changes, founded an alliance of leading maritime companies in April to push for collective crew changes and most recently have been one of the participants in Singapore Crew Change Working Group. It is no accident that this latest success has been achieved in partnership with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and the Singapore government who have been endlessly supportive and proactive. By enabling a full complement of Sri Lanka and Indian seafarers to join and disembark this GENCO Shipping & Trading bulk carrier, through this well planned and controlled changeover, they have shown the world that crew changeovers for seafarers of other nationalities are possible even during a pandemic.”
In the existing setting, where the effect and also limitations associating with the pandemic continue to be liquid in lots of locations, the assumption is that the control of team modification will certainly remain to be a difficulty.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, team modification can happen in Singapore under treatments developed by MPA. The brand-new standards offer both predictability and also a strong structure for risk-free team adjustments in significantly bigger numbers than seen the last couple of months. In that respect, the brand-new clear, regular standards can end up being the plan for port authorities somewhere else when considering resuming for team adjustments.
Image Credits: wilhelmsen.com
For instance, on-signers of the Genco Liberty were asked to continue to be in house quarantine for 2 week and also evaluated adverse for COVID-19 prior to their separation trip. They were fulfilled at the flight terminal by a representative with a personal transportation that followed risk-free distancing procedures. Face masks and also hand sanitisation were likewise offered all getting here team.
For the team signing-off, an accepted clinical physician licensed that all team participants were fit-to-travel before sign-off. There was no sharing of traveler launch watercrafts for team and also solution engineers/technicians. The team were communicated secretive transportation that followed risk-free distancing procedures, and also fresh face masks and also hand sanitisation were offered all team prior to boarding the automobiles. The assigned representative likewise advised team participants that the donning of face masks is obligatory in Singapore.
Ms Quah Ley Hoon, Chief Executive of MPA, claimed, “Singapore continues to facilitate crew change under established procedures, in view of the ongoing pandemic. These procedures elaborated in the Singapore Crew Change Guidebook are the efforts of many stakeholders including many Singapore government agencies, the Singapore Shipping Association leading an industry taskforce, and the Singapore Maritime Officers Union. We are glad that together with Wilhelmsen and the Synergy Group, and by using a chartered flight, we have been able to help 37 crew members sign-on and sign off. Such chartered flights provide an effective means of crew change under the established procedures.”
The brand-new team modification procedures released in the COVID-19 Singapore Crew Change Guidebook were established according to International Chamber of Shipping (ICS)’s Framework of Crew Change Protocol and also MPA’s Port Marine Circular (PMC) 26 of 2020.
The manual is released by MPA, Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) and also Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union (SMOU), and also together with the International Maritime Employers’ Council Ltd (IMEC) and also the World Shipping Council (WSC).
