12 Aug 13 - 16:35
A change of the Danish visa rules means that it has become much more difficult to implement crew changes in Danish ports and waters. Danish Shipbrokers Association has turned to the Parliamentary Trade and Industry.
"As it many times has been reported to the authorities, it is a major challenge and worry in the business that there are no guidelines on how procedures should be when crew members embark and disembark ships in Denmark", writes Danish Shipbrokers Association in a letter.
On 20 June 2013 the Danish Ministry of Justice issued a report on the revision of the Danish visa regulations. Part of the report deals specifically with issues relating to seafarers and include, inter alia, on page 78, that there should be guidelines for issuing visas to seamen.
"We would like to know whether it we should follow these recommendations concerning seafarers and what the time horizon can be expected to be like. We note that while the report was published on the Ministry of Justice's website and before comments on the report had been gathered, the police issued notifications on new procedures and routines", wrote Shipbrokers' Association's director Allan Houtved in the inquiry.
"There is still a great need for adjusting the routines in the police so that they are consistent with both political wishes along with those of the industry. Currently there are differences in how the rules are observed, not only in the various police forces, but also individual employees and separate stations observe the rules differently. For the industry, this means that crew changes sometimes are possible in certain places but probably not always elsewhere", it is added in the letter.
The letter also notes that many have the impression that people in Denmark do not want the sailors traveling to or from vessels and therefore makes it as difficult as possible with different rules, some written but mostly unwritten rules.
Danish Shipbrokers Association writes that the matter is very urgent and request that the matter will be treated as soon as possible.
