Intl seafaring nations pattern SID Card after PH

Intl seafaring nations pattern SID Card after PH
Yashika F. Torib December 11, 2020 https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/12/11/news/national/intl-seafaring-nati...

THE Seafarers’ Identity Document (SID) Card of Filipinos is now used as the standard SID template by foreign seafaring nations.

This comes after the International Labor Organization (ILO) officially whitelisted the Philippines for fully meeting the minimum requirements of the Revised SID Convention 185.

The Philippines was the first ratifying member state to comply with the convention.

“We are very proud to be the first country to comply with the Revised SID Convention and that other seafaring nations are using our best practices as a model in their own SID,” said Maritime Industry Authority or Marina Administrator Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad.

The SID Convention permits the movement of seafarers all over the world, particularly their shore leaves in various international ports, repatriation to their home country after the completion of contracts and when joining vessels in other countries.

“In cases when a seafarer does not have a visa for the country he or she will be entering to embark or disembark a vessel, he or she may use the Sid Card in lieu of the visa,” Empedrad added.

Based on the ILO Director General’s report, the convention’s governing body “approved the inclusion of the Philippines as the first ratifying member to be listed as fully meeting the minimum requirements referred to in Article 5, paragraph 1 of the Convention, as amended in 2006.”