An industry study shows tens of thousands of seafarers are stranded at sea due to the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions and lockdown measures across the globe keeping them from completing their shifts.
Figures from International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Maritime Employers’ Council suggest 150,000 seafarers are in need of crew change by 15 May, up from 100,000 under normal circumstances.
Of them, 40,000 crew members are from the Philippines, 25,000 from the European Union, the UK and Norway, 20,000 from India, 15,000 from Ukraine, and 10,000 each from China and Russia. The remaining 30,000 are from other countries.
ICS, which represents more than 80% of the world merchant fleet, warns that more workers will be stranded at sea if governments continue to fail to facilitate crew change.
“Globally there are 1.2 million seafarers onboard 65,000 ships at sea. For the past two months crew change has all but completely stopped,” ICS secretary general Guy Platten said in a press release.
“This means that crew have not been able to disembark or embark ships at port and terms have had to be extended, but this is not sustainable.”
To raise awareness of the crew crisis, ICS and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are coordinating ships around the world to sound their horns when in port at 12.00 local time on May Day.
International organisations – including ICS and the IMO – have called on governments to exempt seafarers from travel restrictions as they are essential in maintaining the global supply chains of food, fuel and medicine.
In late March, the IMO said professional seafarers and marine personnel should be designated as “key workers” regardless of their nationality to induce more crew rotations.
But changing crews remains difficult in many parts of the worlds, not least due to travel restrictions in major seafaring nations like India and the Philippines.
In China, the authorities have allowed Chinese seafarers to change shifts but explicitly banned foreign seafarers from entering the country.
Even as some countries are slowly relaxing rules for crew change at ports, limited air travel has prevented many seafarers from returning home.
The current situation risks the safety and mental wellbeing of seafarers, threatening the shipping industry’s ability to deliver vital cargo during the Covid-19 outbreak, according to ICS.
