IMO lobbies for safe maritime corridor amid Russia-Ukraine conflict

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council has agreed to encourage the establishment, as a provisional and urgent measure, of a blue safe maritime corridor to allow the safe evacuation of seafarers and ships from the high-risk and affected areas in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov amid the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine following the invasion of the country by Russian military forces.

The council hopes the measure will protect the lives of seafarers, ensure the mobilisation and commercial navigation of vessels intending to use this corridor by avoiding military attacks, and protect and secure the maritime domain.

The council has invited Secretary-General Kitack Lim to collaborate with the relevant parties and take necessary immediate actions to initiate the establishment and support the implementation of the maritime corridor and keep member states informed of developments and report to the next session of the council.

The council welcomed the proposal that a number of steps should be taken to reduce the suffering of seafarers and their families, as follows:

• As a priority, ships should be allowed to sail from ports in Ukraine at the earliest opportunity without threat of attack.
• For those ships that cannot leave immediately, or where it would be unsafe to do so due to the presence of sea mines or other hazards, humanitarian corridors should be set up to enable the safety of seafarers by allowing them to leave the conflict zone and return home, as appropriate.
• Any form of harassment of seafarers due to their nationality should be condemned.
• Seafarers affected by the conflict should be allowed free access to communications with their families.
• States should ensure that seafarers are able to access their wages.
• States should acknowledge the key worker status of seafarers and allow their unrestricted movement.
• Taking into account the key worker status of seafarers, states involved should strongly consider exempting their seafarers from mandatory military service.
• Where port State control officers are presented with expired documentation, a pragmatic approach to the inspection should be taken, considering the exceptional nature of the situation.