BIMCO ASKS PORT OF KANDLA TO RELAX BAN ON VESSELS WITH STOWAWAYS

BIMCO ASKS PORT OF KANDLA TO RELAX BAN ON VESSELS WITH STOWAWAYS    The Baltic and International Maritime Council has asked the Kandla Port Trust to ease the Port of Kandla’s ban on ships arriving with stowaways on board.
   While acknowledging India’s concerns regarding national security, BIMCO said that such concerns “should be alleviated in cases involving ships with only a small number of stowaways on board, particularly those that are supervised by professional security guards.”
   India is a contracting government to the Facilitation Convention of the International Maritime Organization, where BIMCO has “official observer” status.
   If the regulations remain unchanged, “BIMCO will raise this issue at the next session of the IMO facilitation convention,” said Thomas Timlen, a spokesman for BIMCO. The next meeting of the convention will be Jan. 27-31.
   BIMCO is a private association of shipping companies with 2,600 members in 122 countries,