Seafarers should not remain on board the vessel for quaranteen

Following the results of the meeting of the anti-coronavirus task force of the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport of Russia  will draw the attention of the heads of regions to the need to comply with the decisions taken regarding the non-application of isolation standards to ship's crews. The meeteing of the task force which was held on the eve of Victory Day under the chairmanship of Deputy Minister of transport of the Russian Federation Yuri Tsvetkov via  videoconference, was attended by heads and  designated stuff memebrs of the Federal Agency for Maritime and river transport, the Seafarers Union of Russia, the Russian chamber of shipping and other representatives of the industry.

Earlier The Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing  gave explanations according to which 14-day isolation of all persons arriving on the territory of the Russian Federation does not apply to crew members of sea and river vessels. However, some regions live by their own rules, which makes it difficult to change crewmembers who are Russian citizens in ports of the Primorye, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar territories, Murmansk region and Saint Petersburg. "In these subjects of Russian Federation excessive requirements are put forward for placing crewmembers in a 14-day quarantine as it leads to violation of the labor rights of seafarers and unjustified vessels demurrage, which in some cases are unacceptable due to the continuity of technological cycles and shipment programs, in particular, Russian oil export, and a potential increase in the level of accidents due to non-compliance with the work and rest schedule of seafarers»,- the Federal Agency for Maritime and river transport noted in the statement 

The Agency plans "to indicate to the heads of subjects of the Russian Federation on the need to respect the aforementioned decisions about exceptions to the rules on isolation the crewmembers of vessels" and "to develop and adopt  at the government level  the Federal act establishing a uniform set of rules for the seafarers' transportation to the ship and from the ship  for replacing under  the above-mentioned regulations," and  to develop and publish transparent algorithms of interaction between participants of process of changing crews before the relevant acts are adopted.

Earlier the Seafarers Union of Russia made the same proposal to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. It was proposed to entrust the Russian Ministry of Transport and The Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeig to establish a unified procedure for discharging  crewmembers who are Russian citizens in Russian ports from the vessels arriving from foreign ports