Singapore prohibits crew changes for seafarers with recent travel to India

Singapore, as a shipping hub, is set to ban crew changes involving all non-residents with recent travel to India.

The move would appear to be a major setback in attempts to resolve the crew crisis, which has seen around 200,000 seafarers trapped at sea by the pandemic.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has informed the shipping community that crew with recent travel history to India in the last 14 days will not be allowed in the Port of Singapore. The ban goes into effect on Saturday.

This includes sign-on crew travelling to Singapore by flight, as well as sign-off crew from vessels that have called in India.

The ban also applies to sign-on crew transiting India on their connecting flights to Singapore.

MPA said the prohibition of crew change in Singapore is in line with the Ministry of Health’s announcement that all long-term pass holders, and short-term visitors, with recent travel to India in the last 14 days will not be allowed into Singapore, or to transit through, from Saturday.

He said the border closure will have impact on the construction, marine and process sectors.

This will affect the schedule of freighters, and will also have an impact on the supply chain. This will inevitably lead to an increase in product prices. The reason is that the entire shipping industry has been disrupted, which may cause inflation to continue to rise.

United Nations data shows that 80% of the world's trade relies on shipping, and 240,000 of the world’s 1.6 million seafarers are from India. Entry restrictions have undoubtedly further aggravated the impact on the shipping industry. In the short term, this situation is difficult to alleviate. According to industry insiders, the blockage of the Suez Canal in March is not worth mentioning compared with the supply chain interruption caused by the inability of crew to change shifts.

Source: https://www.tradewindsnews.com/ship-management/singapore-prohibits-crew-changes-for-seafarers-with-recent-travel-to-india/2-1-999992