In 2015, the International Labor Organization is providing the United States a rare opportunity to enhance maritime security worldwide. In early February, the ILO will hold a meeting of maritime security and visa experts to examine the feasibility of a cost-benefit analysis of various options involved in ratifying and implementing the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention (ILO-185).
A post September 11 initiative of the United States, ILO-185 provides international standards for positively identifying seafarers through biometric indices (fingerprints). Experience since 2001 has proved that seafarers are not security risks. Rather, they are vital components of maritime domain awareness security networks, and ILO-185-based seafarers’ identity documents positively them as legitimate shipboard professionals.
ILO-185 also enhances seafarers’ job satisfaction by facilitating shore leave. An ILO-185 compliant seafarers’ identity document provides a substitute for a visa in those few countries that require seafarers to have a visa for shore leave.
The United States requires foreign seafarers to have a D-1 visa for shore leave. Visas are not required of foreign seafarers who remain on their ships in U.S. waters or on ships carrying U.S. cargo. Current 96-hour pre-arrival vetting of seafarers on ships calling at U.S. ports provide security checks that are equivalent to a visa application process — and they are more current. SCI’s annual shore leave surveys reveal that about 90 percent of those seafarers denied shore leave in the U.S. are denied because they don’t have a visa.
The United States should take advantage of the ILO’s opportunity to find a way to ratify ILO-185. By doing so, it would provide an incentive for more maritime nations to ratify the convention, thereby strengthening pre-arrival vetting and security on ships worldwide. It would also make seafaring careers more rewarding and help ease the looming seafarers’ recruiting and retention crisis.
Rev. David Rider, Executive Director and President, Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey