Kenyan seafarers are at risk of being locked out of jobs because of lack of identification documents.
The International Labour Organisation Conventions: Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention, 1958 (C108), which was revised in 2003 (C185), requires that all seafarers have a special identity document known as Seafarers Identification Document.
Kenya is among the nine countries that has ratified the convention.
The SID, also known as a Seaman's Book or Seaman's Card, is a document that is carried by all professional seafarers, including cruise ship members or yacht crew, for keeping a record of their time at sea, regardless of their nationality, including stateless persons and refugees.
It is issued for the purpose of providing the holder with identity papers for travel to or from an assigned vessel.
Seafarers Union of Kenya’s Stephen Owaki said, already, Brazil has banned Kenyan seafarers from getting into their country because of lack of the document.
“Brazil had given us up to May 5 to have our seafarers get that important document. We missed that target,” Owaki said on phone on Monday.
The UK and EU countries have given Kenya up to mid next month to have its about 8,000 seafarers have the SID.
Owaki on Monday told the Star the SID is a relatively new document and all seafarers in Kenya do not have it.
He said before coming up with the document, there has to be legislation in Parliament to authorise its production and issuance by the Kenya Maritime Authority.
“That part of legislation has already been done. The only part that is remaining is to issue tender for somebody to do the production of the actual document,” he said.
Owaki said the document has to have unique security features for it to be tamper-proof and to enhance its integrity and credibility.
Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi has raised the red flag, saying the KMA is denying Kenyan jobs.
“They (Kenyan seafarers) have hurdles in front of them. There are countries, like Brazil, [where] cannot get into because they lack that identification document,” Abdillahi said.
“I am going to sit down with the KMA chairman Hamisi Mwaguya and ask him pertinent questions. The government passed regulations on the same and tender was supposed to be given out. Why are our seafarers not getting this important document?”
Owaki said a Kenyan seafarer was thrice denied entry into Brazil because he did not have the SID.
Mostly, it is the container vessels that do not allow seafarers without the SID to get on board, but Brazil has barred seafarers getting on board both container vessels and cruise ships.
Mwaguya, however, said only nine countries in the world have so far ratified the requirement.
“It is not an urgent thing as people want to make it,” he said.
This has, however, angered the seafarers union, which said the statement is disappointing coming from someone who should be fighting to have the documents processed faster.
“He may look at it like that but Kenya is among the nine countries that has ratified that convention and now some countries are restricting seafarers to enter those countries if they do not have SID. That’s where the problem is. Like Brazil have denied our people entry,” Owaki said.
“One of our seafarers reached Dubai and when they found out he was headed for Brazil, they cut short his journey. This happened thrice. Eventually they had to change the country for boarding the ship."