A crewmember with an expired passport was successfully repatriated from Sri Lanka

The Seafarers Union of Russia along with ITF inspectorate in Russia helped a crewmember from the m/v DS Venture to sign off and go home. It should be noted that the Russian Embassy in the Republic of Sri Lanka played a decisive role in the repatriation of a Russian citizen to their homeland.

The seafarer applied for ITF with request to help him return home. He said that his contract of employment has expired, but due to the coronavirus pandemic the company was unable to organize a change. In addition the foreign passport was only three days away from expiration by the time the DS Venture called the port of Fujairah in the UAE.

Under these circumstances the seafarer applied for help in repatriation to the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Dubai, but they could not help him. Then the ITF Inspectorate in the Arab world joined the case and asked the local immigration authorities to assist in repatriation after a long contract. But this request was denied due to the short stay of the vessel in Fujairah.

So DS Venture left the UAE bound to Sri Lanka, where eventually the seafarer was signed off. Here, on the roadstead of the port of Halle, he was transferred to a boat and then placed in the observatory, where he passed a test for coronavirus. The result was negative. While the seafarer was in a medical facility, a local agent delivered his documents to the Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka. There the crewmember was issued a temporary document for crossing the border so that the migration authorities could issued a visa.

The seafarer has already returned home.