MARITIME CYBER SECURITY Archives - Page 12 of 40 - SHIP IP LTD

To remind, the Neptune Declaration Crew Change Indicator is published monthly to provide reliable data regarding the crew change crisis and the way it evolves. It is based on data from 10 ship managers, who are collectively responsible for more than 90,000 seafarers across all the major segments.

The number of seafarers onboard for over 11 months has similarly slightly decreased from 1.3% to 1.2%. After a significant deterioration of the situation since May, the August and September Indicators point to a stabilization of the situation.

What is more, the Indicator shows that 21.9% of seafarers from the sample have been vaccinated. This corresponds to an increase of 6.6 percentage points since August.

Under a trial program commencing in the coming weeks, Australia aims at reducing the risk of serious illness and community transmission.

According to local media sources, Maritime Safety Queensland and QLD Health developed a vaccination program that will commence with high risk vessels, ships that visit Australian ports on a regular schedule, those that carry liquid fuels, and finally all other vessels arriving at QLD ports.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation, along with employer organisations including Maritime Industry Australia Ltd and Shipping Australia, have welcomed the initiative that will not only protect the health of seafarers, but strengthen Australia’s supply chains.

For a better glimpse into this dire situation, during summer almost 9% of merchant sailors were stuck aboard their ships beyond their contracts’ expiry, according to data compiled by the Global Maritime Forum non-profit group from 10 ship managers together responsible for over 90,000 seafarers. The maximum allowed contract length is 11 months, as stipulated by a U.N. seafaring convention.

This crew change crisis derives from restrictions imposed by major maritime nations across Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan and China, which host many of the world’s busiest container ports. More specifically, in these countries, requirements range from mandatory testing for crews who come from or have visited certain countries, to outright bans on crew changes and berthing operations.

Namely, in a letter addressed to prime minister Boris Johnson and maritime minister Robert Courts, Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson calls on the UK to back a waiver of the usual patent rights offered under the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS agreement, in order to help increase manufacturing and access to Covid vaccines around the world.

Studies from the UK, Southeast Asia and Latin America have also shown that workers transporting people and goods are at a heightened risk of contracting serious Covid infections and are much more likely to die.

Moreover, the pandemic has had a serious impact on the welfare of key transport workers travelling across international borders. At the start of the year, for example, around 400,000 seafarers were stranded on ships, working long past the end of their contracts and unable to be repatriated.

At present, the shipping companies and crewing agencies who supply workers to their vessels recommend that crew members be vaccinated, but vaccinations are not mandatory.

John Wilson of the LSC says the welfare of seafarers must come first. “If you have been vaccinated, the likelihood of serious illness or death is limited. It’s not eroded completely, but the chances of you dying or having to be hospitalised are reduced greatly, as is the case for everyone,” he said. “It is a sensible way forward”.

“The underlying message at the moment is that if you’re not vaccinated, you will not be employed, but they haven’t made it mandatory. However I believe it is going to become mandatory from a continuation of employment point of view.”