The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has warned that lack of access to vaccinations for seafarers is placing shipping in a ‘legal minefield’, while leaving global supply chains vulnerable.
A legal document due to be circulated to the global shipping community later this week by ICS highlights concerns that vaccinations could soon become a compulsory requirement for work at sea because of reports that some states are insisting all crew be vaccinated as a pre-condition of entering their ports.
However, reports estimate that developing nations will not achieve mass immunisation until 2024, with some 90% of people in 67 low-income countries standing little chance of vaccination in 2021. ICS calculates that 900,000 of the world’s seafarers – well over half the global workforce – are from developing nations.
This is creating problems for shipowners, who may be forced to cancel voyages if crewmembers are not vaccinated. They would risk legal, financial and reputational damage by sailing with unvaccinated crews, who could be denied entry to ports.
Vaccination hubs across key international ports are under discussion
Delays into ports caused by unvaccinated crew would open up legal liabilities and costs for owners, which would not be recoverable from charterers. Furthermore, while owners would be able to address the need for seafarer vaccines in new contracts, owners attempting to change existing contracts or asking crew to receive a specific vaccine requested by a port could open themselves up to legal liabilities.
The uncertainty comes at a crucial moment in the ongoing role of shipping in the global supply chain during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ICS reckons shipping will overtake aviation in the race to deliver vaccines around the world in the second half of 2021, in a distribution drive that is estimated to take four years. Shipping is also a vital method of transportation for accompanying personal protective equipment (PPE), whose estimated total volume will be six to seven times that of the vaccine and refrigeration systems.
Seafarers are among the most internationalised workers in the world, crossing international borders multiple times during a contracted period, with up to 30 nationalities onboard at any one time. ICS’s legal document noted that it is likely that a Covid-19 vaccination will be required by most if not all states and therefore it would reasonably be considered to be a “necessary” vaccination.
ICS secretary-general Guy Platten said: “Shipping companies are in an impossible position. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place, with little or no access to vaccines for their workforce, particularly from developing countries. We’re already seeing reports of states requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination for seafarers. If our workers can’t pass through international borders, this will undoubtedly cause delays and disruptions in the supply chain. For a sector expected to help drive the global vaccination effort, this is totally unacceptable.”
Bud Darr, executive vice president, maritime policy and government affairs at MSC Group, voiced concern that the lack of vaccinations could become an obstacle to the free movement of seafarers this year.
“The shipping industry needs to find creative solutions to the problem. In the short term this means getting seafarers vaccinations in their countries where there are established programmes and sufficient supplies of vaccines. In the long term it’s about exploring the idea of public-private partnerships. There may even be the opportunity, when the initial surge of need is met for national allocation, for manufacturers to provide vaccinations directly to shipowners to allocate/administer to these key workers,” Darr suggested.
The ICS is currently exploring all avenues to find a solution. This includes the implementation of vaccination hubs across key international ports, as suggested by the Cypriot government. If a solution to provide direct access of vaccines to seafarers is not found, shipowners fear a return to the crew change crisis of 2020 that saw 400,000 seafarers stranded onboard ships across the world due to travel restrictions and international lockdowns.
This initiative should not be used by crewing agencies, who are the most exploitative of seafarers, as an excuse for extorting more fees from out-of-work seafarers desperate for work. This would be on top of the flock of fees for registration, fake certificates, processing, etc, that most crewing agencies in the developing world charge. Seafarers should insist upon the local government medical service administering these injections, since the crewing agencies are likely to defraud them. They should be on the lookout for fraudulent injection certificates.
If the world runs out of experienced seamen who no longer want to go to sea and risk exceeding their contract time again, then the world’s shipowners are to blame. They could have made an effort and got those 400,000 or so seamen home on time. But instead they could not pass up an opportunity to cut costs and enlarge profits. Hopefully now they will have to pay higher wages to induce these crews to return, with undertakings of better treatment on board.