Singapore has taken a big step forward with its measures to facilitate crew changes in the city state, with the opening tomorrow of two new facilities to accommodate crew who are unable to transfer directly to their vessel or flight.
The ‘halfway house’ concept, as first reported last month by Splash, will allow crew access for a period of up to 48 hours.
Posh’s accomodation vessel Posh Bawean is one of the facilities being used, and has 52 rooms with capacity to provide up to 178 guest beds.
Additionally, to facilitate crew signing off in Singapore, technology such as tele-medicine consultations can be used to obtain a fit-to-travel certificate.
Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has approved about 6,000 crew changes since March 27, and says given the high volume of crew change applications it will prioritise crew change in Singapore to Singapore-registered ships.
A similar initiative has been considered in Japan, using Osaka’s offshore airport as a crew change hub.
It is really heartwarming to see POSH taking the initiative to provide one of their own OA vessels for such a purpose. A shout-out to the crew onboard for undertaking such a noble task too.
Singapore is definitely going in the right direction for crew change, slowly but surely many more crew changes will be taking place; however, the procedures are a little much for seafarers as the measures taken are akin to those at the epicenter of the infection when these individuals are most isolated, would be nice to review the measures.