Legal Sources Regulating the Crew Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During 2020 and 2021, numerous seafarers had to stay on board their ships long after their employment agreements expired due to a worldwide pandemic caused by COVID-19. In some cases, seafarers were forced to stay on board for more than a year after their employment contracts expired. Seafarers' employers found it impossible to arrange for a crew to embark and disembark from a ship. Furthermore, the seafarers who stayed home for a longer period of time due to a lack of possibility to embark, were deprived of exercising their fundamental right: the right to work. For this kind of situation, the crew change became a burning problem of the maritime industry, so it was necessary to bring legal sources that would regulate the problem. The aim of this paper is to analyze the content of legal sources adopted during 2020 and 2021 at the international and national level, the purpose of which is to regulate the undisturbed embarking and disembarking of the ship crew in the circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic. These sources are: UN resolution on International Cooperation to Address Challenges Faced by Seafarers as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic to Support Global Supply Chains, IMO’s industry recommended framework of protocols for ensuring safe ship crew changes and travel, The Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change, European Union Guidelines on protection of health, repatriation and travel arrangements for seafarers and other persons on board and the Measures of the Ministry of the Sea of the Republic of Croatia for seafarers who have not been able to renew all the documents required for service on ships. After analyzing the content of mentioned legal sources, the key directives for the undisturbed ship crew changes during the COVID-19 pandemic are highlighted within this paper's conclusion.