Sri Lanka Crew Change Policy Guidelines in Week 22 of 2022

Sri Lanka: Extense of a nationwide curfew and Resignation of Prime Minister

Sri Lanka's presidential palace announced that the curfew, which was scheduled to end early on May 10, will be extended for a period of time. No one will be allowed to hang around without permission, and foreign tourists will need to use passports and air tickets as passes to the airport if they want to leave the country. Sri Lanka's prime minister announced that he had submitted his resignation to the president after his supporters clashed with counter-protesters at the city hall.

Sri Lanka has faced political instability in recent weeks due to a lack of foreign currency, shortages of goods and rising prices. Five people including a member of parliament were killed and around 200 injured in burst of crowd in the capital before police imposed a nationwide curfew to prevent further escalation.

According to the epidemic map of the global intelligent ship service management platform "E-PORTS", under the influence of the new round of Omicron epidemic, the policies of Sri?Lanka?main ports have been changed?on 28th?November, 2021.

1.?Are there any restrictions on vessels whose previous port call was from COVID -19 high risk countries?

? Suspension of visas on Sri Lanka.

According to the new health guidelines DGHS/Covid - 19/347/2021 from 26th November, travelers with a travel history (including transit) in the past 14 days to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Eswanti will not be permitted to disembark Sri Lanka from 28th November. All already granted visas are temporally suspended.

? All vessels will need to submit the following documents:

- Pre arrival documentation on health declaration

- Last 10 port of call with dates

- Vessel health status report

- Crew list information port of embarkation and date

? If the vessel has called any restricted ports within the last 14 days, the Master needs to declare the vessel's health status and authorities will grant approvals case by a case basis only after assessing the health risk.

2.1 Crew Change permitted?

? Yes, but subject to the following conditions.

-Fully vaccinated crew arrivals via Colombo Airport are exempted from the Quarantine procedure and they can be accommodated at normal Hotels.

- Unvaccinated crew arrivals via Colombo Airport will continue to be accommodated at Isolation Centers (ICS)

- Fully vaccinated off signers from seaports and unvaccinated crew will still continue to be accommodated at Isolation Centers (ICS)

- Please take note that the crew who are unvaccinated/ not fully vaccinated are not permitted to interact with the Sri Lankan community at all.

- All seafarers are required to carry out PCR tests at the respective Isolation Centers (ICs)/ Hotels and permitted to leave to join ship or flight only on receipt of a negative PCR report.

-The seafarers can use either commercial flights to Colombo or charter flights to Mattala.

-Crew change will be done under the supervision of the Sri Lanka Navy, and they will escort the crew transport vehicle.

-If any seafarer is found positive upon COVID-19 PCR test, provisions for treatment will be done in the designated Intermediate Care Facility approved by the Ministry of Health.

2.2 Shore leave permitted?

?No, crew members of all vessels will not be granted shore passes unless it is for medical reasons and subject to authorities’ approval.

- All seafarers must wear adequate PPE during the stay.?

On E-PORTS platform, COVID-19 Global Port Restriction Map collects information of main ports in the world and releases authoritative and official announcements of various policy changes caused by the COVID-19. For more details about port restrictions and crew change information, please visit: https://www.e-ports.com/app/virusmap.html

Click on each country in the map to display the crew change policy for the country.

For more information on the port and crew change policy, please click 【Contact Local Agent】?for enquiries.