The United States Coast Guard (USCG) will from April 12, 2019, impose conditions of entry to any vessel that has visited a port in the Republic of Seychelles in its last five port calls.
According to the USCG in a statement, conditions of entry are intended “to protect the United States from vessels arriving from countries that have been found to have deficient anti-terrorism port measures in place.”
The USCG had in April 2018, discovered that ports in the Republic of Seychelles failed to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures and that the country’s designated authority’s oversight, access control measures, cargo control measures, and facility monitoring measures were all deficient.
The East African country was notified of this determination in May 2018. The USCG provided recommendations for improving antiterrorism measures and gave 90 days to the country to respond.
In August 2018, the Coast Guard re-visited the Republic of Seychelles to review the country’s progress on correcting the security deficiencies. The Coast Guard determined that Seychelles failed to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures in its port facilities.
However, the coast guard subsequently determined that Seychelles failed to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures in its ports.
The USCG data shows that, apart from Seychelles, the following countries are also subject to conditions of entry: Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Micronesia, Nauru, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Syria, Timor-Leste, Venezuela, and Yemen.