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Seamen’s Church Institute holds high level Round Table to discuss Seafarers’ Identity Card

The Seamen’s Church Institute (SCI) convened a roundtable discussion of the International Labour Organization’s Seafarers’ Identity Document Convention (Revised), 2003 (ILO-185) on 24 January 2006. The objective was to gather a cross-section of the maritime and governmental leaders to identify issues relating to the United States and other nations implementing ILO-185 and to examine strategies for advancing universal standards for seafarers’ identity documents.

Admiral James M. Loy, USCG (Ret.) chaired the roundtable. Representatives from U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Transportation, Transport Canada, the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Consulate General of the Russian Federation, Embassy and Consulate General of Ukraine, the Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry, Marshall Islands Registry, Vanuatu Maritime Services, Port Authority of NY & NJ, Canadian Merchant Service Guild, Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), Chamber of Shipping of America, Intrepid Shipping, Teekay Shipping, Holland & Knight, Troutman and Sanders, and Seamen’s Church Institute of NY & NJ participated in the roundtable. The Seamen’s Church Institute provided written submissions.

The Roundtable participants discussed several reasons in addition to those described above, why United States ratifying ILO-185 would prove advantageous. Some of these included:

· Biometric SIDs would enhance security for seafarers who carry them while ashore. Seafarers do not have access to their passports and visas while the ship is in the United States as they are locked up in the ship’s safe.

· ILO-185 would facilitate shore leave procedures and opportunities. If ILO-185 is not widely implemented, an increasing number of port states might impose visa requirements for shore leave, resulting in increased expenses and administrative burdens. Australia recently announced a visa requirement for crew shore leave.

· SIDs would equal or exceed the security benefits of crewmember D-1 visas when used in conjunction with pre-arrival vetting, Customs and Border Protection border interviews and US-VISIT biometric verification. An addition security benefit is that all persons on ships in United States waters would have biometric SIDs, not just those who apply for shore leave.

· SIDs would confirm seafarers’ status as merchant vessel crews who, because of their essential contributions moving of commerce and providing security on vessels, should be accorded special treatment. Seafarers have a different status.

· SIDs will help shipowners monitor who works on their ships, and they will enable good shipowners to become more effective in security vetting their ships, thus providing an additional layer of security.

· With more than 30% of the world’s shipping calling at U.S. ports, ILO-185’s effectiveness depends upon the United States accepting the convention’s principles.

· Many countries, including many European nations, are prepared to ratify the convention but are waiting for a signal from the United States.

· United States seafarers may face difficulties entering world ports if the United States does not ratify ILO-185 while a large number of world ports do, as they will not posses an SID required for entry.

Although the roundtable participants uniformly supported the value of an ILO-185 SID as an identity document, the main obstacle to United States’ ratifying the convention was its conflict with United States immigration law requiring seafarers to have visas for shore leave.

Federal government representatives confirmed that the Untied States has not arrived at a position on US ratifying ILO-185. Agencies are discussing ratification, recognizing the critical need for positively verifiable and internationally acceptable identification for seafarers, but the visa issue remains problematic. Nongovernmental organizations were urged to participate in the dialogue.

The roundtable discussions were consistently positive. The interagency discernment process for ratifying ILO-185 has begun, but it has not been completed. The challenge is to make a high priority of getting beyond past rhetoric and convert the positive roundtable discussions into concrete actions. Public and private policy makers should not preserve traditions of the past if there are good reasons to modify past practices to conform to the realities of the present. The benefits of widespread ILO-185 ratification, especially that all of the world’s seafarers would have biometric SIDs, far outweigh the benefits of requiring only shore leave applicants to have a visa.

Attendees: Jonathan Benner, Troutman Sanders and SCI; Deborah Blanchard, SCI; Mark Board, Teekay Shipping; Bill Brush, U.S Customs and Border Protection; Joseph Cardinale, U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Joe Cox, Chamber of Shipping of America; Lawrence Dempsey, Canadian Merchant Service Guild; Richard duMoulin, SCI Trustee and Intrepid Shipping; Lars Forsberg, Holland & Knight LLP; Stephen Frey, Liberian Registry; Scot S. Graham, U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York; Kirsten Hammelbo, Royal Norwegian Embassy; John Hillin, U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York; Vladimir Khlebnikov, Russian Consulate, New York; James M. Loy, The Cohen Group; George Lynn, U.S. Department of State; Viacheslav Luzin, Embassy of Ukraine; Clay Maitland, SCI Trustee and Marshall Islands Registry, the Rev. Andy Moore, SCI; Bob North, SCI Trustee and Marshall Islands Registry; Andrii Olefirov, Ukrainian Consulate, New York; Jim Patton, Department of Homeland Security; Paul Pluta, BIMCO; Denise Robertson, Vanuatu Maritime; Beth Rooney, Port Authority of NY & NJ; Donald Roussel, Transport Canada W.D.C Marine Safety; Brian Salerno, U.S. Coast Guard; Andrey Savushkin, Russian Consulate, New York; Donald Sheetz, Vanuatu Maritime; The Rev. Dr. Jean R. Smith, SCI; Douglas B. Stevenson, SCI; Cyndi Stowe, U.S. Coast Guard; The Rev. W. Kurt von Roeschlaub, SCI Turstee; Jim Walsh, Liberian Registry; and Jim Zok, U.S. Department of Transportation.