Nautilus International and the UK Chamber of Shipping have urged Maritime Minister Robert Courts MP to support establishing the UK as an international seafarer vaccination hub, where seafarers of all nationalities can access Covid-19 vaccines while their vessels are in ports around the UK.
In a joint letter to the minister, Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson and UK Chamber of Shipping CEO Bob Sanguinetti wrote: 'In many nations, seafarers are not being prioritised for vaccination by their domestic vaccination programmes. Without such prioritisation, the shipping industry will need to develop a global solution for seafarers to access vaccines while away from home.
'We believe that the UK can take the lead in calling for a global solution and that to do so would be to pre-empt and to mitigate issues likely to be faced by seafarers travelling internationally, such as the need for vaccination passports to facilitate travel, - says the letter, - With the UK as a global maritime leader and the home of the International Maritime Organization, we feel that a UK international seafarer vaccination hub will be an ideal showcase of the UK’s maritime offer to the world.'
In addition, according to Mark Dickinson and Bob Sanguinetti, such a move will prevent disruptions in the supply chain of goods.
