- The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has warned that lack of access to vaccinations for seafarers is placing shipping in a ‘legal minefield’.
- This will as well leave the global supply chains vulnerable.
- ICS highlights concerns that vaccinations could soon become a compulsory requirement for work at sea.
- This is because of reports that some states are insisting all crew be vaccinated as a pre-condition of entering their ports.
A recent news article published in the ICS website reveals that shipping companies in ‘impossible position’ as proof of seafarer vaccinations poses legal minefield.
Mass immunisation
However, reports estimate that developing nations will not achieve mass immunisation until 2024, with some 90% of people in 67 low-income countries standing little chance of vaccination in 2021. ICS calculates that 900,000 of the world’s seafarers (well over half the global workforce) are from developing nations.
A perfect storm for shipowners
This is creating a ‘perfect storm’ for shipowners, who may be forced to cancel voyages if crew members are not vaccinated.
They would risk legal, financial and reputational damage by sailing with unvaccinated crews, who could be denied entry to ports.
Delays into ports
Delays into ports caused by unvaccinated crew would open up legal liabilities and costs for owners, which would not be recoverable from charterers.
Furthermore, while owners would be able to address the need for seafarer vaccines in new contracts, owners attempting to change existing contracts or asking crew to receive a specific vaccine requested by a port could open themselves up to legal liabilities.
The uncertainty comes at a crucial moment in the ongoing role of shipping in the global supply chain during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shipping is expected to overtake aviation
Shipping is expected to overtake aviation in the race to deliver vaccines around the world in the second half of 2021, in a distribution drive that is estimated to take four years. Shipping is also a vital method of transportation for accompanying personal protective equipment (PPE), whose estimated total volume will be 6-7 times that of the vaccine and refrigeration systems.
Seafarers cross borders multiple times
Seafarers are among the most internationalised workers in the world, crossing international borders multiple times during a contracted period, with up to 30 nationalities on board at any one time.
ICS’s legal document noted that it is likely that a Covid-19 vaccination: ‘Will be required by most if not all states and therefore [it] would reasonably be considered to be a “necessary” vaccination.’
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Source: ICS Shipping
