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March 26, 2021
WHO, ICAO, ILO, IMO, and IOM issue Joint Statement on prioritization of COVID-19 Vaccination for Seafarers and Aircrew
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Photo: Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas in Bar Harbor, Maine. Image Credit: Corey Seeman.
• Joint Statement from International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Labour Organization (ILO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), and World Health Organization (WHO) •
Geneva, March 25, 2021.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered devastating consequences for human life and the global economy. Maritime and air transport are essential activities that underpin worldwide trade and mobility and are critical to a sustainable socio-economic recovery.
Maritime transport moves More than 80% of global trade by volume. The global economy depends on the world’s 2 million seafarers who operate the global fleet of merchant ships. Travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic have severely impacted the Seafarers. Some 400,000 seafarers are stranded on board commercial vessels, long past their contracts’ expiry. A similar number of seafarers urgently need to join ships to replace them.
Passenger air transport carried about 5.7 billion passengers in 2019, while airfreight represents 35% of the value of goods shipped in all modes combined. According to ICAO personnel statistics, the total number of licensed aviation professionals, including pilots, air traffic controllers, and certified maintenance technicians, was 887,000 in 2019. The application of stringent public health rules to aircrew, including quarantine, has resulted in hindered connectivity, operational complexity, and high cost.
Maritime and air transport rely on seafarers and aircrew. They are vital workers required to travel across borders at all times, resulting in the need for them to present proof of a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition for entry in some countries. It is despite WHO’s recommendation that, at present, governments should not introduce requirements of proof of immunization for international travel as a condition of entry, as there are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission and limited availability of vaccines. For shipping and air transport to continue to operate safely, governments must facilitate seafarers’ safe cross-border movement. We reiterate our call upon countries that have not done so to designate seafarers and aircrew as crucial workers.
With this statement, our organizations also call on governments to prioritize seafarers and aircrew in their national COVID-19 vaccination programs, together with other essential workers, per the advice from the WHO SAGE Roadmap for prioritizing the use of COVID-19 vaccines in the context of limited supply published in November 2020. Seafarers and aircrew need to be protected through vaccination as soon as possible to facilitate their safe movement across borders. We also call on governments to identify and prepare for the challenges of COVID-19 vaccination of seafarers and aircrew, particularly for seafarers spending long periods away from their home country.
Our organizations fully support the timely development of an internationally harmonized framework for vaccination certificates to facilitate international travel for seafarers and aircrew.
WHO has established a Smart Vaccination Certificate working group. It works to ensure that digitalized versions of vaccine certificates are interoperable. The UN Crisis Management Team for COVID-19, under the leadership of WHO, has recognized that all countries should consider seafarers and aircrew who are required to travel across borders during the pandemic for essential allocation of vaccines.
We invite governments and other stakeholders to bring this joint statement’s contents to the competent authorities’ attention and all parties concerned.
Source: WHO
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 4:29 AM | View the original post
