General precautionary and preventive measures for all Libyan ports:
- It is banned to embark ships arriving at any Libyan port or oil platforms to avoid any direct contact with their crews. This ban applies to: (pilot, representative of passports authority, customs representative, shipping agent, marine authority representative, shipment inspector, and the like).
- Crews of foreign ships, ships, tugboats are banned to disembark at any Libyan port unless in urgent cases which are those cases approved by the director of health control office at the relevant port.
- The shipping agent should submit the following documents with the arrival notice:
a- List of last ten (10) ports that were entered (last ten (10) ports of call), including date of entry and exist for each port,
b- List of crew members with their embarking dates. Those who embarked during the last two weeks from the date of arrival should also be listed;
c- Declaration by the shipmaster that the ships is free from the symptoms or suspected symptoms of coronavirus.
- Administrative and technical procedures / formalities for each of the parties mentioned in Point (1) above over the radio and/or electronically.
- Berthing procedure will start once the health representative has verified the declaration made by the shipmaster as stated in subparagraph (2c) above. In case the health representative is not available the ship shall be granted the permission if the pilot agrees to permit it to enter using radio piloting onboard the assistant tugboat or radio piloting from the traffic control tower.
- Berthing operation will be done using at least (2) tugboats for safety.
- Remote pilotage will be carried out using radio and/or electronic telecommunications taking into consideration safety and security requirements.
- In case health control office exists at that port, their representative will be allowed onboard to ensure that the ship is free from any suspected case of coronavirus. He will not be allowed to embark unless he wears personal protective equipment including disposable overall, gloves, goggles, N95 mask, head cover, shoes cover, antiseptics). In all cases, health representative should embark the ship before the pilots do.
- In case, it is not possible for the health representative to get onboard the ship at the outer anchorage area, the ship will be permitted to enter commercial and industrial ports using radio pilotage onboard the assistant tugboat or from the control tower. The health representative will then get onboard the ship at the internal port dock.
- In case the shipmaster refuses to enter without the presence of a pilot or in case the pilot refuses to enter the ship using radio pilotage, the pilot will be allowed to embark the ship provided that he wears personal protective equipment including disposable overall, gloves, goggles, N95 mask, head cover, shoes cover, antiseptics. He should follow the preventive and disinfection measures immediately once he has disembarked.
- In case the shipmaster refuses to enter the ship without pilot or if the pilot refuses to enter the ship using radio pilotage onboard the tugboat and PPE equipment are not available, the ship will not be allowed to enter unless after fourteen (14) days from its date of arrival.
- It is banned to unload any solid or liquid wastes from the ship in the Libyan ports.
- All shipping agents, operators of oil harbors of the National Oil Operations, the Libyan Ports Company, Misurata Free Zone, Towage, Salvage and Marine Services Company, General National Maritime Transport Company, shipowner companies should:
a- Provide Personal Protective Equipment PPE, including disposable overall, gloves, goggles, N95 mask, head cover, shoes cover and antiseptics approved by the National Center for Disease Control CDC,
b- Issue awareness circulations and guidelines for their staff members and follow up with international circulars on Coronavirus COVID-19.
- Shipmaster should, once the daily working hours are over, roll back the ship ladder and not to lift the ladder and not to roll it down until the next day when the handling operations start and upon an instruction by the relevant authority. In case he violates this instruction, he will be subjected to judicial actions…
(For further details and updates, as well as information about operations in Libya, contact the GAC Dubai Hub Agency Centre at [email protected])
Source: Extract from Libyan Marine Authority Coronavirus COVID-19 Precautionary and Preventive Measures 2 dated 22 March 2020
