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The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report contains no reply to its previous comments and that the relevant legislation remains unchanged. It hopes that the next report will include full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Convention. Readmission to the territory after expiry of the identity document. The Committee noted in its previous comments that, under section 34 of the Identity Documents Act, the period of validity of the foreign seafarers’ identity document may be of up to five years but must not, under any circumstances, exceed the period of validity of the residence permit issued. The Committee recalls that, pursuant to this provision of the Convention, seafarers shall be readmitted to the territory of the State that issued them with their identity document during a period of at least one year after any date of expiry indicated in the said document. Consequently, the Committee once again requests the Government to indicate whether specific texts giving effect to this requirement exist. Should this not be the case, it requests the Government to take the measures necessary to amend the legislation and practice so as to bring them into conformity with the Convention.

The Committee invites the Government to envisage ratification of the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003 (No. 185), which would entail the automatic denunciation of the present Convention and would put an end to the current situation of non-application of the present Convention. It asks the Government to keep the Office informed of any new developments in the field and of any progress achieved towards the ratification of Convention No. 185.