Dozens of countries, including the USA, UK and Singapore, agreed on Thursday to accelerate efforts to return hundreds of thousands of sailors of merchant ships for many months remaining on their ships due to the outbreak of coronavirus, according to Reuters.
According to the International Maritime organization of the UN during the pandemic affected about 200 thousand sailors. Many were at sea longer than the 11-month limit established in the Maritime labour Convention. The shipping industry say that many sailors are on the limit, in a situation which the United Nations called “a humanitarian crisis”.
the Authorities of several countries agreed to open to foreign seafarers borders and increase the number of commercial flights to expedite the repatriation to port and then to their home countries. They also pledged to give the sailors the status of “key employees” of the shipping industry, allowing them to rely on social benefits, and urged other countries to follow their example. About 90 percent of world trade is carried by sea transport, and restrictions on the coronavirus in some countries still affect the supply chain, despite the weakening of the regime of strict isolation in many parts of the world.
