GAO: Risk from ship jumpers could be reduced

GAO: Risk from ship jumpers could be reduced    The U.S. Government Accountability Office said protection from foreign merchant seamen who might jump ship and enter the U.S. illegally could be improved.
   In a report, GAO said there is a discrepancy between records kept by the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection on the number of ship jumpers.
   Seamen come into the country illegally by becoming either “absconders,” when they have been ordered by CBP to be detained on board a ship, but depart without permission, or by becoming “deserters,” when they have been given permission by CBP to come ashore, but then do not return when required.
   The Coast Guard reported 73 percent more absconders and almost double the deserters compared to CBP for fiscal years 2005 through 2009. Both agencies report a dramatic decrease during that time. A graph in the report shows the Coast Guard reporting a decrease in the combined number of absconders and deserters falling from around 190 in fiscal 2005 to around 40 in fiscal 2009.
   The report said seafarers are screened using a “layered security strategy” that includes State Department screening of seafarer non-immigrant visa applicants overseas and screening by the Department of Homeland Security of commercial vessels' seafarer manifests and admissibility inspections of all arriving seafarers.
   CBP “conducts cargo vessel admissibility inspections on board the vessel without the benefit of tools to electronically verify a seafarer's identity or immigration status because of a lack of available connectivity to network communications in the maritime environment,” the report said. DHS, according to GAO, expects it will take “several years before the technology is developed and available. CBP agrees that obtaining this capability is important, but has not assessed the risks of not having it.”
   GAO also said that as of December, CBP and the Justice Department have not met a legal requirement to adjust related civil monetary penalties on vessel operators whose seafarers illegally enter the United States for inflation.
   A new international treaty, International Labor Organization's Convention 185, was adopted in 2003 after the terrorist attacks of 2001. It establishes international standards for nationally issued seafarers' identity documents, replacing an early agreement from 1958.
   ILO 185 was supposed to “create a framework for nations to issue more secure, standardized credentials to bona fide seafarers, which, in turn, helps seafarers gain access to foreign territories for shore leave and other professional travel, such as transiting from an airport to meet a vessel in port,” GAO explained.
   The London-based International Chamber of Shipping and International Shipping Federation said that “as a quid pro quo for requiring seafarers to carry new identity documents, port states are required to facilitate shore leave and transits to and from ships, for example by not requiring seafarers to obtain visas from overseas consulates in advance of their arrival.”
   Those two groups also said wide ratification of ILO 185 “should materially assist the welfare of seafarers who are increasingly deprived of shore leave in certain countries.”
   But GAO said international implementation of ILO 185 has been limited — 18 countries, representing 30 percent of the global seafarer supply, have ratified ILO 185. The United States has not ratified it largely due to concerns over a provision for facilitating visa-free shore leave for foreign seafarers, nor did it ever ratify the 1958 treaty.
   GAO said that while the Coast Guard supports U.S. ratification, CBP stated that ILO 185's lack of oversight did not serve U.S. law enforcement interests. The United States has recently undertaken an interagency review to consider ratification. but has no timeline for completion, GAO said.