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The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Further to its previous comments, the Committee again notes that the review of the Merchant Marine Code, referred to for several years as the occasion to adopt legislative minimum age requirements for the issuance of a certificate of competency for a skipper, a mate and an engineer as required by Article 6, paragraph 1, of the Convention, has not taken place. The Committee recalls the Government's earlier statements that while in practice no certificate of competency can be issued before the person concerned has reached the age of 23 (given the period of training involved and the required period of navigation), it had none the less agreed to add the minimum age prescribed by the Convention as a condition for the issuance of a certificate of competency. The Committee trusts the Government will take the necessary measures, pending the more general review of the Merchant Marine Code, by introducing such minimum age requirements for the issuance of a certificate and thus bring the legislation into conformity with the national practice and the Convention. In this regard the Government could consider calling on the technical assistance of the Office through the multidisciplinary team in Dakar.