Kitack Lim, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has repeated his plea for governments around the world to allow safe seafarer crew changes as a matter of urgency.

The current seafarer safety crisis will come under the spotlight with a dedicated webinar session during Digital Maritime Week, which runs from 22 – 26 June 2020.

As a global solution to the crew change crisis remains elusive the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) and its affiliated seafarer unions say they now assist their members to stop working and leave their vessels.

Ship management group V.Group has managed to repatriate over 7,000 seafarers in the last three months but says that crew change remains the number one challenge facing the maritime industry

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has reiterated its call for seafarers to be treated as ‘key workers’ during the pandemic so they can safely return home.

In a major step forward in getting crew changes moving again Hong Kong is to allow unrestricted exchanges of seafarers.

Back at the end of January when Covid-19 first started becoming a concern outside of China had you told me that in June Seatrade Maritime News would be publishing multiple stories in a day about ship managers successfully conducting crew changes...

DNV GL’s ceo for Maritime, Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, last week described the treatment of seafarers in the face of the global pandemic “a disgrace”.

Despite the difficulties in conducting crew changes due to restrictions around the world to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic Fleet Management has scored considerable success in India and China.