UN General Assembly Resolution requires seafarer vital employee classification as well as application of team modification methods; IMO Secretary-General advises top priority inoculation.

The United Nations General Assembly has actually contacted UN Member States to mark seafarers as well as various other aquatic employees as vital employees as well as to apply appropriate procedures to permit stuck seafarers to be repatriated as well as others to sign up with ships, as well as to make sure accessibility to healthcare.

In a resolution on worldwide collaboration to resolve difficulties dealt with by seafarers as an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic to sustain international supply chains, embraced on 1 December, the United Nations identifies the demand for an immediate as well as concrete feedback from all stakeholders, consisting of the economic sector, to fix the scenario of seafarers stranded mixed-up and/or not able to sign up with ships as a result of nationwide traveling limitations presented around the world as an outcome of the pandemic.

Image Credits: imo.org

The resolution likewise motivates Governments as well as appropriate stakeholders to apply IMO-recognized methods to make sure risk-free ship team modifications as well as traveling throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, thus permitting stuck seafarers to be repatriated as well as others to sign up with ships, considering necessary safety nets taken by port states versus COVID-19.

Welcoming the fostering of the resolution, International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack 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.”

Mr Lim included, “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.”

The UN resolution contacts worldwide companies as well as various other appropriate stakeholders, consisting of employees as well as companies companies, to sustain Governments, upon their demand, in the layout as well as application of their reactions as well as plans targeted at making sure the honesty as well as enhancing the strength of international supply chains, good working as well as living problems as well as civils rights of seafarers.

Vaccination for seafarers

Noting current favorable information pertaining to the advancement of injections versus COVID-19, Mr Lim claimed the vital employee classification need to make sure seafarers as well as maritime employees obtain top priority inoculation, to permit them to function as well as keep crucial 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,” Mr Lim claimed.

UNGA resolution on International collaboration to resolve difficulties dealt with by seafarers as an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic to sustain international supply chains

The resolution was embraced throughout a session of the 75th United Nations General Assembly on 1 December 2020.

Reference: imo.org