The Cyprus Shipping Chamber, through its Member-companies, participated in a global initiative, in view of Labor Day, sounding the horns of ships in Limassol port together with other ships in ports across the world, on 1 May 2020, at 12 noon local time. With this this gesture of solidarity, the International Shipping Community honored the “unseen heroes” of global trade, its seafarers, wanting to remind the general public around the world, that the 1.6 million Seafarers worldwide are the ‘blood cell’ of Shipping that provides for each and every one of us not only during the Covid-19 pandemic but on a daily basis.

Taking this opportunity, the Shipping Chamber highlights once more, the urgent need to find viable solutions to facilitate the movement of ship crews and allow seafarers to join ships or return to their countries, as well as to ensure access to medical treatment onshore to seafarers working on board and their repatriation in case of an emergency.

This great initiative was organised by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), with the enthusiastic support of the Shipping Deputy Ministry, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Work and the Cyprus Port Authority.