India’s Covid-19 Surge Adds Pressure to Seafarers Stranded at Sea
Shipping companies struggling with cargo bottlenecks are again facing a potential crewing crisis as major ports refuse to accept or replace Indian seafarers amid mounting Covid-19 infections across the South Asian country.
Singapore and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates are preventing ships from changing crews that traveled to India while some Chinese ports, including the major container gateway of Ningbo-Zhoushan, are entirely barring ships that have traveled to India or Bangladesh over the past three months from calling at cargo terminals.
“It’s a contractual challenge and a well-being mental challenge,” said René Kofod-Olsen, chief executive officer of V.Group, a London-based ship management company that oversees assignments for more than 40,000 seafarers around the world.