On Sept. 11 and the days following the attack, maritime workers from outside the U.S. were either denied shore leave or forbidden to board their ships due to uncertainties among U.S. officials over seafaring credentials. To prevent a repeat of the confusion, the International Labour Office (ILO), a specialized agency within the United Nations (UN), has approved a uniform biometric seafarers' ID card for use by countries around the globe.

The new card will replace country-specific ID documents — allowed under a set of rules passed by the ILO in 1958 — with a more uniform specification. “The new card provides a balance between the rights of the world's 1.2 million seafarers, as well as trade interests and security concerns,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said at a June conference.

A major feature of the new ID is a biometric template based on fingerprints. The ILO plans to take urgent measures to develop “a global interoperable standard for the biometric, particularly in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).” The ILO has also set new rules regarding the format and content of the ID document. To prevent unauthorized people from obtaining an ID, member states will be required to maintain a proper database “available for international consultation.”

Many law-abiding seafarers were detained for up to two weeks after Sept. 11, either on shore or aboard docked ships. During a time of extraordinary security precautions, some officials were “reluctant to recognize IDs issued by foreign governments,” Dani Apave, senior maritime specialist at the ILO, said at the recent CardTech/SecurTech Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Fla. “The mobility of seafarers is also very important to industry,” he continued. “The inability of commercial vessels to meet planned delivery schedules can cause delays in manufacturing.”

The previous set of rules mainly required ID documents to contain the name and title of the issuing authority; the date and place of issue; the full name of the document bearer; date and place of birth; nationality; physical characteristics; a photo; and a signature (or, if the bearer is unable to sign, a thumbprint). Called Convention No. 108, the old rules were especially flexible about document format, stipulating only that the ID be “designed in a simple manner, made of durable materials, and so fashioned that any alterations are easily detectable.”

“The instrument which finally emerged [as a result of Convention No. 108] fell short of the expectations of its sponsors,” the ILO acknowledged during 2002, in a report entitled “Improved Security of Seafarers' Identification.”

“Convention No. 108 does not create an international seafarers' identity document; it provides that each state may issue its own national document. The document's form and content are determined nationally, and often one state party to the Convention does not even know what the document of another state looks like,” the report says. “Immigration authorities are often unsure if such a seafarers' identity document is genuine or counterfeit.”

From February of 2002 through February of 2003, the ILO held a series of meetings about a proposed revision to Convention No. 108. Governments debated a number of issues — some wanted to require passports, others opposed the use of any biometric identifiers whatsoever, Apave says.

“Japan indicated that it did not include biometrics in its national identity document. If such a requirement were imposed on seafarers, there could be lawsuits alleging discrimination. Unlike airports, which in Japan were restricted zones, ports were open areas and there could be no legal basis for the different treatment of seafarers,” according to the ILO's 2002 report.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, suggested that “if biometrics were adopted, it should be according to ICAO standards, and the identity document should be in credit card form.”

Along the way, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), another specialized UN agency, asked the ILO to establish a joint working group to “consider the form and content of further guidance on the wider issue of port security, including the relationship between ship port facility security, and safety considerations relevant to port areas, including verifiable identification of those working within these areas.”

In the spring of this year, the ILO incorporated some of the changes suggested by its member states into a final document. The ILO's new “Convention On Seafarers Identity” was adopted on June 19, 2003, by a 392-0 margin, with 20 abstaining from the vote.