ICS published as research investigating macro and micro-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the shipping industry.
More specifically, the report assesses:
Moreover, in September 2019, three months before COVID-19 was formally identified, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, a World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank initiative, raised concerns about the international community’s unpreparedness for a pandemic (GPMB 2019).
All these efforts represented missed opportunities to establish robust preparedness policies for pandemics and other health crises, to protect global society and industries, including global supply chains and transportation networks
said ICS.
From the shipping industry’s perspective, the pandemic highlighted how a healthy, highly skilled, and motivated workforce is needed to support the ever-increasing demand for goods and products transported by sea through a sophisticated supply chain network, which began to struggle at the peak of national restrictions to contain the outbreak. Two years of strain and pressure on seafarers have negatively impacted mental health and wellbeing.
At the peak of the pandemic, over 400,000 seafarers were stranded on board ships, as governments overlooked or neglected their crucial role and refused to prioritise them for vaccination, immigration, and travel purposes, whilst an equal number of seafarers could not join ships as planned, to work and support their families.
Some found themselves stranded at sea for over a year – far beyond their contractual terms, unable to disembark and cut off from physical contact with their loved ones. This was frequently referred to as a kind of governmentally induced forced labour (ITF 2020). It also had a major impact on their mental wellbeing.
Ensuring quality labour is the responsibility of employers, unions, national and international regulators. Due to the substandard treatment of seafarers, during the pandemic, the shipping industry is experiencing notable shortages in the workforce, which is expected to increase and place the supply chain under even greater strain.
