CREW IDENTITIES MUST BE ‘AN INTERNATIONAL OPEN BOOK’

CREW IDENTITIES MUST BE ‘AN INTERNATIONAL OPEN BOOK’    Clay Maitland, managing partner of International Registries, Inc., which administers the Marshall Islands maritime and corporate flag registers, has told delegates to the LSM Manning and Training in China Conference in Shanghai that shipowners must “reveal the names and details of crew members with criminal records.”    “Although the idea of criminal background checks on new seafarers is generally acceptable,” Maitland said, “many seafarers’ organizations and unions will not support such checks on existing employees.”
   “We are now living in a different world, and seafarers will absolutely need visa and valid documentations for every country to which their vessels trade,” he said.
   In many cases, “the increasing difficulty in obtaining shore leave for seafarers in the U.S. and other countries is the result of a more rigid enforcement of immigration rules,” Maitland explained.