A clamour by ship managers to get hold of Covid-19 vaccines has sparked concerns that unapproved vaccines may hit the market.

This week, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore added Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to the list of countries from which visitors are barred, effectively ruling out crew changes. That follows a ban on recent visitors to India.

In response to the worsening situation, ship managers’ association Intermanager has said it is ready to go it alone to secure its own vaccines.

The International Chamber of Shipping’s director of employment affairs Natalie Shaw said that, as things stand, the only way to safely procure vaccines for seafarers is through national governments.

“Nobody can buy legitimate vaccines except the health sector, other than that they can only be bought by government departments at the moment,” Shaw said.

“That situation could change, and we are lobbying the United Nations system to try to see if we can get access to purchase vaccines as soon as possible, but with the situation deteriorating as it is at the moment in India, and in some other developing countries, it is unlikely to be in the near future. “

Columbia Shipmanagement chief executive Mark O’Neil, who also heads Intermanager, said his company and other managers had already secured approved vaccines.

But added that the vaccines had been sourced through governments of labour supply countries, such as the Philippines.

“All the vaccines that we have sourced or bid for are approved vaccines,” he said.

Columbia Shipmanagement chief executive Mark O'Neil said he wants governments to act as a conduit in securing vaccines. Photo: Columbia

O’Neil added that the latest bid by Intermanager to secure vaccines for members would also be through governments.

“We have had a number of conversations with vaccine producers for orders placed through government departments. We are looking to finally get a government to act as a conduit. All we want is someone in the UK government to facilitate it and I can’t see what the problem is,” he said.

Shaw said that the the International Labour Organization (ILO) has now confirmed that under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) port states do have a responsibility to vaccinate seafarers.

Flag and port states

Shaw said: “Our priority at the moment is to try to persuade both flag states and port states to provide vaccine access for seafarers. At the moment, some European states are saying, ‘Actually, it’s not our responsibility to vaccinate seafarers which do not come from our country'.

"But they do have a responsibility, which was clarified at the ILO last week by the ILO legal director, who stated it is their responsibility as vaccination falls under safety, health and protection under 4.1 MLC.”

“That is an argument that we have been using for a number of months, but it was nice to have the ILO confirming that our interpretation is correct."