Personnel Security

The World Shipping Council has been working with the U.S. government on a number of new programs to improve the security screening of personnel working in the maritime industry.

The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) mandates that the U.S. government develop and issue transportation worker credentials, which will be implemented in the form of a Transportation Worker Identification Credential or Card (TWIC) under a new program to be implemented by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Read the latest update on TWIC from DHS >>

The National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC), which was established with the passage of MTSA and is chaired by Council president Chris Koch, provided its inital recommendations to DHS on the TWIC process in May 2005. Read the 2005 NMSAC recommendations >> >> and issued its final recommendations on TWIC in February 2007.Read the recommendations   >>

Effective August 2003, the U.S. discontinued the practice of allowing the use of crew list visas for seafarers, which enabled the crew of a vessel to be covered by a single visa for the purpose of shore leave, signing on or off a vessel and transiting from one vessel to another. Each seafarer is now required to obtain an individual visa from a U.S. embassy or consulate.

In January of 2004, the U.S. implemented the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology or US-VISIT program, which currently only applies to seafarers when flying into or departing the U.S. by plane. Learn more about US-VISIT >>

The International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted a revised Seafarer’s Identity Documents Convention in June of 2003. Although the U.S. participated in the negotiations that resulted in the new seafarer credential, it is unclear what role, if any, the new credential will have in the U.S., in part because the biometric identifier parameter of the ILO credential is incompatible with existing U.S. programs. Learn more about the ILO >>

More Information

Cargo Security

Vessel and Port Security

Port and Maritime Security News

back to top