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Welcoming a UN General Assembly resolution asking for seafarers to be assigned as essential employees IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim is advising that seafarers as well as maritime employees obtain top priority COVID-19 inoculation to enable them to function as well as keep essential international supply chains.
“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,” he claimed.
The General Assembly resolution, embraced December 1, acknowledges the demand for an immediate as well as concrete action from all stakeholders, consisting of the economic sector, to fix the circumstance of seafarers stranded mixed-up and/or incapable to sign up with ships as a result of nationwide traveling limitations presented around the world as an outcome of the pandemic.
The resolution additionally motivates federal governments as well as pertinent stakeholders to apply IMO-recognized procedures to make certain risk-free ship staff adjustments as well as traveling throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, thus enabling stuck seafarers to be repatriated as well as others to sign up with ships, considering important safety nets taken by port states versus COVID-19.
Welcoming the fostering of the resolution, Secretary-General Lim claimed, “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.”
- Download the complete message of the UN General Assembly resolution HERE.
