March 6, 2008

Ships headed for U.S. must take special measures in Syrian ports

The U.S. Coast Guard today issued a Port Security Advisory that adds Syria to the roster of countries that that it has determined to be not maintaining effective anti-terrorism measures. Ships arriving to the U.S. that have visited any of these countries within their last five port calls must take special measures while in those countries as a condition of entry into U.S. ports.

The required actions take effect for vessels visiting Syria beginning on March 20, 2008.

The required measures include:

1. Implement measures per the ship's security plan equivalent to Security Level 2;

2. Ensure that each access point to the ship is guarded and that the guards have total visibility of the exterior (both landside and waterside) of the vessel. Guards may be:

provided by the ship's crew, however, additional crewmembers should be placed on the ship if necessary to ensure that limits on maximum hours of work are not exceeded and/or minimum hours of rest are met, or

provided by outside security forces approved by the ship's master and Company Security Officer.

3. Attempt to execute a Declaration of Security;

4. Log all security actions in the shipÕs log; and

5. Report actions taken to the cognizant U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port prior to arrival in the U.S.

Vessels that visited countries on the USCG during their last five port calls will be boarded at sea by the Coast Guard to ensure the vessel took the required actions. Failure to properly implement the actions will result in denial or delay of entry into the United States.

Download Port Security Advisory 2-08 for full details