Mongolia – Seafarer’s Medical Certificates

C24025 | 15 May 2024

Notice to: Ship Owners / Managers/ Operators / Surveyors / Auditors :

The Mongolia Maritime Administration has issued Marine Circular No. 01/151/2024 which provides guidance for meeting the medical certification requirements under the STCW and MLC Conventions, and Mongolia’s laws and regulations.

The IMO guidelines for the examination of seafarers, STCW.7/Circular 19, is included as an annex to the Circular, which also advises that all applicable international guidelines published by the ILO, IMO or WHO, including the ILO/WHO “Guidelines for Conducting Pre-sea and Periodic Medical Fitness Examinations for Seafarers” should be followed.

Key points of the Circular include:

• Medical certificates must reflect the seafarer’s health, considering the duties they are to perform onboard.
• Shipowners, Recruitment Placement Services, and seafarers are encouraged to provide the Guidelines to their medical practitioner before, and for use during, the medical examination.
• The Mongolia Maritime Administration will only endorse certificates of competency after confirming the validity of the medical certificate.
• Seafarers must undergo a medical examination within twelve months before their employment
• The medical certificate must:
  • state that the seafarer has no medical condition that is likely to worsen due to serving onboard, or jeopardize the health of others.
  • state whether the seafarer is free from communicable, or infectious diseases.
• Medical practitioners should ascertain if the seafarer has been involved in any incidents such as armed robbery or piracy that may have affected mental well-being and provide any necessary mental evaluations or counseling.
• Seafarer’s medical certificates can be in any form established by the competent authority of the medical practitioner’s location, or the form established by the Mongolia Maritime Administration, which can be downloaded here .
• Ship owners, managers operators, and masters must ensure that seafarers are only deployed to perform duties for which they are medically fit.
• Seafarers may be deemed “fit for duty” even if they cannot perform routine and emergency duties safely and effectively, provided that adaptation is possible. Otherwise, they should be deemed “not fit for duty”.
• Seafarers who have been refused a certificate or have had a limitation imposed on their ability to work, have the right to appeal, and the circular gives details on how this can be done.

Act now

Ship Owners/ Managers/ Operators should take note of the contents of the circular and ensure that before employing any seafarer on a Mongolian-flagged ship, a medical certificate is obtained that complies with the guidance given in the circular.