CrewEQUIP launched to combat omicron crew crunch

The Crew Enhanced Quarantine International Programme (CrewEQUIP) is a partnership between the International Maritime Employers’ Council (IMEC), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). Collectively, the organizations represent more than 80% of the global merchant fleet and nearly 1 million international seafarers.

CrewEQUIP will create a list of trusted hotels available for crew quarantines. The program is designed to respond to the frequent changes in border policies affecting international crew by ensuring that the scheme will continue to safely get seafarers to vessels even if governments alter quarantine requirements.

The groups said the program is urgently needed to avoid letting seafarers trapped working aboard beyond their initial contracts and preventing others from joining vessels and thus earning income.

While an internationally-recognized, permanent vaccination and testing system is still urgently needed, the groups said CrewEQUIP would be important to support greater levels of crew changes.

The responsible groups welcomed this week the announcement of a new joint World Health Organisation-International Labour Organisation industry action group to advance digital ‘yellow cards’ for seafarers and other workers who need to cross borders for their jobs. Yellow cards are medical passports issued by the WHO, which could be used by transport workers as proof of vaccination.

Under the CrewEQUIP scheme, shipping companies would be able to sponsor pre-embarkation quarantine facilities, which must meet CrewEQUIP’s stringent standards for hygiene, testing integrity, and data security.

IMEC chairman Captain Belal Ahmed, said: “This new quarantine facility program will give industry more confidence to support the movement of seafarers around the world knowing that there are considerably fewer risks of Covid-19 being introduced to a vessel if seafarers have joined it via a CrewEquip-approved facility, where the highest standards will prevail.”

Source: Spalsh247

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