Four seafarers aboard a Euronav tanker were able to disembark to the French Island of Reunion, as the shipping industry's crewing crisis continues.
The Belgian shipowner said in a social media post on Thursday that the quartet left the 150,200-dwt Statia (built 2006) in the suezmax's first crew change in more than three months.
Reunion, a French overseas department roughly 390 miles east of Madagascar, "has recently been opened for crew changes", the post read.
"[The crew] of the Statia are several months over contract and will remain onboard disappointed and frustrated," Euronav said in the post.
"Together with 400,000 seafarers worldwide, they only hope an opportunity will arise soon for them as well as it has done for the four shipmates."
The New York-listed company went on to say that world governments have dragged their feet on implementing the IMO's crew change guidelines and called on them to treat seafarers as essential workers.
"[Inaction] leads to thousands of seafarers locked up onboard, with poor outlooks on their release. Life onboard has turned into an exhausting and often dangerous setting," it said.
Euronav did not respond to a request for details on the Statia's situation, its plans for crew changes or further details on Reunion's crew change regulations.
Similar requests made to Port Reunion were also unanswered.
The Statia, according to automatic identification system data, is off the southern coast of Madagascar with no destination listed.
Tens of thousands of seafarers are trapped aboard their ships, many for eight months or more, as authorities the world over have been leery of facilitating crew changes over concerns it could spread Covid-19.
The IMO, International Chamber of Shipping and International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) employees have asked that seafarers be given "key worker" status, like airline crews, but have apparently been rebuffed.
The ITF warned this week it could take a strike action if measures are not taken soon. The union has already signed off on three contract extensions and said it would not approve a fourth in a move to force the adoption of crew change guidelines developed by the union and the industry.
Over the weekend, Genco Shipping & Trading swapped out the crew of the 180,000-dwt Genco Liberty (built 2016) in Singapore under regulations enacted in late May.
Tuesday shipowners group Bimco hailed Hong Kong's regime allowing crews to change as a "pragmatic approach".
