Many stranded crew members stated governments ought to do extra to accommodate crew adjustments. “Ports and international locations need the cargo, however with regards to the crew who’re bringing the cargo to them, they aren’t serving to us,” stated Nilesh Mukherjee, the chief officer on a tanker carrying liquid petroleum fuel, who’s from India.
Even in regular occasions, changing a crew member includes advanced logistics, stated Frederick Kenney, director of authorized and exterior affairs on the Worldwide Maritime Group, a U.N. company that oversees world delivery.
Leaving a ship, and getting house, requires extra than simply disembarking. It normally includes a number of border crossings, flights with not less than one connection, and a slew of certificates, specialised visas and immigration stamps. A crew member’s substitute has to undergo the identical steps.
Each step in that process is “damaged” due to the pandemic, with flights restricted, border controls tightened and lots of consulates closed, in keeping with Mr. Kenney. Whereas some international locations have discovered methods round the issue, “the speed of progress isn’t maintaining with the rising backlog of seafarers,” he stated final week.
Some ports have exempted crew members from border restrictions, then backtracked after seafarers, arriving from their house international locations to report for obligation on a ship, had been discovered to have Covid-19.
Hong Kong exempted sea in addition to airline crews from a 14-day quarantine requirement, but it surely changed those rules in July, after the exemptions had been blamed for a surge in case numbers. In Singapore, too, protocols had been tightened after seafarers examined constructive for the virus on arrival.
