Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention, 1958 (No. 108) - Liberia (Ratification: 1981)

Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention. Readmission to the territory and permission to enter a territory. The Committee notes that section 4.2.1 of the Requirements for Merchant Marine Personnel (RLM-118, Rev. 06/2012) provides that the Seafarer’s Identification and Record Book (SIRB) is a document issued to personnel serving aboard Liberian flag vessels for the purposes of providing the holder with identity papers for travel to or from an assigned vessel. In this connection, the Committee recalls that: (a) any seafarer who holds a valid seafarers’ identity document issued by the competent authority of a territory for which this Convention is in force shall be readmitted to that territory, including during a period of at least one year after any date of expiry indicated in the said document (Article 5 of the Convention); and (b) each member shall permit the entry into a territory for which this Convention is in force for temporary shore leave or – provided that the document contains space for appropriate entries – for the purpose of joining a ship, passing in transit to join a ship or for repatriation (Article 6). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on how it gives effect to these provisions of the Convention.

The Committee further recalls that the Convention has been revised by the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003 (No. 185). It draws the Government’s attention to its general observation addressing the recent amendments to the annexes of Convention No. 185.