Crew change for cargo ships

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has announced that it will continue to consider the following circumstances for crew change applications:
(a) crew whose employment contract has expired;
(b) additional crew on board whose sign-off would not affect the safe manning of the ship;
(c) change of crew due to the sale or purchase of ship;
(d) personnel who are not part of the ship’s crew such as superintendents and service engineers;
(e) compassionate grounds e.g. death of family member; or
(f) the crew is no longer medically fit to work onboard the ship.

As per the MPA’s Port Marine Circular No.10 of 2021 dated 25 March 2021, the requirements for signing-on and -off are as follows:

SIGN-ON

(a) In general, all signing-on crew are required to serve 14-day Stay-Home-Notice (SHN) in the crew’s originating country/region in the periodimmediately prior to his/her departure flight/ferry to Singapore. The crewshould be completely isolated in a room with a dedicated toilet with strictlyno interaction with others (including family members) at his/her place ofresidence, or serve the SHN in a dedicated facility/hotel.

(b) Crew from specific low risk countries/regions will either no longer be required to serve the SHN or serve a shorter SHN of 7 days in his/her originating country/region prior to departure for Singapore. Please refer to ICA’s website (https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/files/SHN-and-swabsummary.pdf) for the latest list of low risk countries/regions.

(c) The crew must have a negative result from a COVID-19 test (polymerasechain reaction (PCR) type) taken at a government-approved or ISO 15189-accredited testing facility at his/her originating country not more than 72hours prior to departure for Singapore.

(d) The crew must be certified fit-to-travel by a doctor at his/her originatingcountry not more than 24 hours prior to departure for Singapore.

(e) During the entire crew change process, including during the journey toSingapore, the crew should not be in a group of more than five (5) persons,and must remain in the same group. There must be no interactions betweengroups.

(f) The crew should only join his/her ship not more than two (2) days before theship’s final departure from Singapore. Ships departing for sea trial andreturning to Singapore is not considered final departure.

(g) Crew shall only join the ship in Singapore after all high-risk1 shore-basedpersonnel have completed their work on board and disembarked the ship.

(h) Meet-and-greet services must be arranged for sign-on crew arriving atChangi Airport, to escort the crew from the moment they disembark theplane to the point where they are handed over to the agent for the directtransfer to the ship or designated holding facility.

(i) Crew who have recovered from COVID-19 must submit documentary proofof his/her past diagnosis of COVID-19 based on the earliest positive PCRtest result.
i. If the date of the positive PCR test result is 21 days or fewer beforethe date of arrival in Singapore, he/she will not be approved for crewchange.
ii. If the date of the positive PCR test result is between 22 to 180 days before the date of arrival in Singapore, the recovered crew need not serve the SHN at his/her originating country/region nor take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours before departure for Singapore. If he/she develops symptoms prior to departing for Singapore, he/she must be tested for COVID-19.
iii. If the positive PCR test result is more than 180 days before the date of arrival in Singapore, he/she must serve a 14-day SHN at his/her originating country and take a COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours before departure for Singapore.

SIGN-OFF

(a) The crew must not have gone ashore in the last 21 days before disembarking the ship, must have remained well and not had contact with any known or suspect case of COVID-19 throughout that period.

(b) The crew shall refrain from interacting with shore-based personnel at previous ports of call in the last 21 days.

(c) The crew must be certified fit-to-travel by a doctor in Singapore not more than 24 hours before disembarking the ship. Tele-medicine can be used to obtain a fit-to-travel assessment and certification. MPA will accept fit-to-travel certificates issued by Singapore Medical Council-fully registered doctors.

(d) Crew subjected to serology test shall remain onboard until production of a negative COVID-19 serology test result.

Sign-on and sign-off crew may stay at designated holding facilities for up to 72 hours.

The Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience Fund Taskforce (SFTF) has developed a CrewSafe audit programme that endeavours to assist crew source nations to bring a higher level of confidence and quality control checks into crew change processes such as quarantine/holding, medical and swabbing facilities.

For further details and updates, as well as information about operations in Singapore, contact GAC Singapore at [email protected]