The United Nations General Assembly has called on UN member states to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers and to implement relevant measures to allow stranded seafarers to be repatriated and others to join ships, and to ensure access to medical care.
The resolution, adopted on December 1, recognises the need for an urgent and concrete response from all stakeholders, including the private sector, to resolve the situation of seafarers stranded at sea and/or unable to join ships because of national travel restrictions introduced across the globe as a result of the pandemic.
It’s something that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has been championing for some time. “I hope that this call to action will result in positive momentum to resolve the crew change crisis," said Secretary-General Kitack Lim.
The resolution calls on international organisations and other relevant stakeholders, including workers and employer organisations, to support governments, upon their request, to design and implement responses and policies aimed at ensuring the integrity and increasing the resilience of global supply chains, decent working and living conditions and human rights of seafarers.