Maldives- Registration Process through Shipping Agent

April 11th, 2012 No Comments

Registration for marsec companies in the Maldives is now open as communicated to us by our shipping agent partner Antrac Maldives Pvt Ltd. To begin the process you will be required to submit the following documents:

  • Company Profile
  • Company Registration and Articles of Memorandum
  • Operating Licenses
  • Police Weapon Licenses & End User Certificates
  • Standard Operating Procedures
  • Security personnel’s passports copy
  • Security personnel’s employment of contract

 

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Abdul Hannan
Director
Antrac Maldives Pvt Ltd
1st Floor, MA. Rafrafge, Buruzu Magu ,
Male’, Rep. of Maldives
Tel: 00 960 3310096
Fax: 00 960 3310129
Mob: 00 960 7775644
Email: ahannan@alliancemarine.com.mv

We are also including a copy of Antrac Maldives permission to operate as a coordinating agent for arms transiting.

If you find the above post useful, give us feedback:

Yours truly,
The PAS (Mauritius) Team
www.portagent.mu/

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EUCs/Licenses : NOW MANDATORY!

March 28th, 2012 No Comments

After the meeting held yesterday by the Mauritian Police Authorities with the local shipping agents, kindly note that the following points were discussed/implemented:

Past the 1st of April, ( they have made it clear) the  local authorities (Customs, Police Armory, Port Police etc…)will INSIST that each arms transiting Mauritius (via sea or air) must be supported by EUCs/Licenses which:

  • Bear Serial numbers of the arms transiting.
  • Bear a signature of a recognised authority (Exm: Director of Customs/ Director of Trade/ Permanent Secretary/ Minister of Defence or the equivalent)
  • Bear the seal of the signing authority.
  • Have  a current validity date.
  • Be from a reliable source (they reserve the right to reject certain EUCs from countries from which fraudulent EUCs have been emitted in a recent past – without however naming specific countries).
  • Has a stated end use purpose (namely to assist against maritime piracy).
  • Arms not supported by such document will NOT be allowed out of the customs or to off-board passing ships.
  • Important fields on an EUC/License cannot bear the mark non-applicable and must be filled in.
  • Export of arms via air freight is now banned. No issues on regular imports though. Basically all air freighted arms and ammunitions once imported must leave via ships. If disembarked they will be , as per usual, stored at the local police armory pending reshipment on passing vessels.

Other points discussed included:

  • The local armoury will soon be extended to increase the stocking capacity and therefore they may review the 3 weeks imposed storage period to be increased. The project is a government funded project.
  • Some modifications needs to be done in the paperwork at the shipping agent level (that of course we are taking care of).

Basically the above is a summary and highlight of points discussed/imposed. It has been highlighted throughout the meeting that the objective of putting the above regulations into place is to prevent potential diversion of arms to unintended destinations in the future. We as your shipping agent will be responsible to make sure the above guidelines are duly implemented. We acknowledge that the above points will necessitate some URGENT review of procedures and consequent adaptation. It is  important that you as a maritime security company coordinate with us as your shipping agent to make sure that everything happens in a timely fashion.

Yours truly,

The PAS (Mauritius) Team

www.portagent.mu/

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Short extension time granted to Shipping Agents in Mauritius

March 21st, 2012 No Comments

The authorities have reverted today, 21st March 2012, with a not too generous extension date of 1st of April 2012. Considering the strong case put forward we were, evidently, expecting for more. You are therefore summoned to plan all your vessel transits accordingly and ensure that each and every arms transiting Mauritius beyond the prescribed date are duly supported by EUCs bearing ALL the required info (serial numbers, authentication etc…please refer our previous post). As you can understand we are and will do our utmost to assist you but cannot be held liable for non conforming EUCs. As per usual specific request for information will be entertained via regular email.

Please treat the above as being TOP IMPORTANT.

 

Update: All requests for outbound air freighting (especially) hence to be lodged PRIOR 28th of March 2012. Same applies for regular arms transit that cannot be support by the right type of documentation.

Download – Grant for Time Extention

Yours truly,

The PAS (Mauritius) Team

Port Agency services (Mauritius) Ltd

Shipping Agent in Mauritius

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Maritime Anti-Piracy: Changes in Transit Regulations

March 20th, 2012 No Comments

We, as your dedicated shipping agent in Mauritius, have received a communication from the office of the Commissioner of Police regarding new controls to be applied to arms transiting the country relating to the fight against maritime piracy.  We have attached a copy of same at the end of this blog.  The new regulations can be classified into two main distinct areas:

  1. Modifications to applications as currently submitted. For this you do not have to worry as we will modify our own templates and guide you through. Clauses concerned include  2(iii) (iv).
  2. End User Licenses. This is much independent of our control and the police, as we have been made to understand, will be unforgiving towards the application of each and every listed clause relating to the supplying of EUCs. Please ensure  that your operations department go through each and every clause listed and make sure that the EUCs held for these individual arms are valid based on the applicable clauses. Your delegated person may contact us to check if unsure.

Clause 3: No export of arms by air will be allowed. Hence arms may come to Mauritius via air but will only be allowed to leave via a maritime vessel. Regular disembarking and embarking remain as per usual.

Clause 4: All EUCs should come from countries with good reputation in such dealings.

You would have noted that the implementation date of the communiqué is to take effect as from the 20th of March 2012 (i.e. today). However, this being totally unrealistic we have already emitted a request for extension to the concerned authorities and will revert , hopefully, with the new date as soon as available. Rest assured that we will spare no efforts to negotiate with the authorities so as to allow you enough time to suitably plan your operations. However, in the mean time you are highly encourage to review your supporting documentations. Should anything require further clarifications please contact email us .

Download copy of new regulations – (3 pages total 747 kb)

Yours truly,

The PAS (Mauritius) Team

Port Agency services (Mauritius) Ltd

Shipping Agent in Mauritius

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Change in Tariff communicated to Shipping Agent.

January 31st, 2012 No Comments

The news has been issued to shipping agents only an hour ago at writing time of this post. The storage fees have been increased from MUR 100 per month to MUR 100 per day. This new tariff will be applicable as from the 1st of February 2012 (i.e. tomorrow).  So overall, storage will henceforth cost around USD 100 per arm per month or  approximately 4 USD per day (ammunition storage costs included). We have attached the relevant paper below.

Our interpretation of this change in tariff:

Mauritius to date has been a very stable country in terms of its politics and policies in general. It is very much unlikely that other increases will show up anywhere soon (only a guess though). Our interpretation of this is: It is more of a signal the authorities had wanted to send for quite some time now. They had several times warned a few maritime security companies not to dump large number of weapons in the local armory and to leave these around for ages just because of the then cheap storage fees. As shipping agents in Mauritius, we also had several times relayed the message. This new pricing seems more to be a planned deterrent to such practices and an endeavor to make the arms rotation more even.We understand on the other hand though, that such a change will demand more rigorous planning on your side. As your shipping agent, will hence have to even further coordinate our actions together in the future to ensure that storage time is used optimally.

Once again, we will seek more details from the authorities regarding the implementation process of this announcement. So more news to follow soon on this topic.

As you dedicated shipping agent in Mauritius, we remain abreast of all changes that may affect your business and will keep you posted.

Download the paper received from the Authorities.

Yours truly,

The PAS (Mauritius) Team

Port Agency services (Mauritius) Ltd

Shipping Agent in Mauritius

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Procedures for Arms Transit tightening up in South Africa…News issued to Shipping Agents

January 27th, 2012 No Comments

The South African authorities have just issued the communiqué  to all shipping agents,  regarding the 21 day vetting process for the transit of weapons relating to maritime security  in South Africa.  SA Authorities will NOT allow any Vessels into South African waters if the 21 day vetting process has not been adhered to through their respective shipping agent. Now, to get this right, this new message means the South African authorities now do really mean and insist on a full fledged 21 day process as from yesterday.   This news is already official and is being stringently enforced. Currently, it seems that all the processing of permits is being moved and centralised to Pretoria , Johannesburg. We do not know as yet how the administration in Pretoria will cope with the extra work load and if things will be done in a timely fashion… we can only wait and see. Such drastic decisions may have been taken due to some problems arising in some recent operations. The actual facts are still to be confirmed. Hence if you want your operations not to be affected early planning is of essence. Further if you consider the police procedure extract below, we should not take any chances with future operations:

 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In order to transit weapons through Durban , South Africa, a vetting process is conducted by the S.A. police, which requires important information and documents to be lodged 21 working days prior to the vessel arrival in the seaport of entry for the application of any firearms and ammunition permit.

If the Vessel is already en-route to S.A. and no permit was applied for in the period provided, such Vessel with firearms is non compliant with the Firearm Control Act (act 60 of 2000) and if these arms are brought in SA territory is considered a very serious offence by the local authorities. Please take good notice of this fact as the Master of the Vessel will be charged and firearms and ammunition will be confiscated.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We, as Shipping Agent,  will monitor closely the situation above and keep you posted. In the meantime, should you require any further information regarding the above or handling of future calls, please  contact:

Jayson Govender

Port Agency Services (Durban)

Address : 75 Winder Street 9th Floor ,

Office 5/6 , Durban,  South Africa , 4001

Mobile  :  +27 72 5987889

Fax        :  +27 86 224 2561

 Email : operations@portagent.co.za

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The Maldives is opening up ! Contact your shipping agent

January 24th, 2012 No Comments

We learnt early yesterday, 23rd of January 2012, through our partners in the Maldives that the latter Government has given its green light to start arms transiting on a consistent basis through the country in support of the maritime security business. This has been long awaited news and our partners in the Maldives have been instrumental in making this happen. Right now, the shipping agents are busy getting their strings tuned as regards to the exact modus operandi. This will be a very short set-up though and we think that the right time for you to capitalise on getting at least your foot through the door is NOW!!! Even though a few arms transit have been carried out by shipping agents in the past as special cases, essentially for luxury yachts, this new event is somehow very much different as now it is specifically targeting anti-piracy endeavours within the shipping industry as a whole.

As a privileged customer of Port Agency Services either in South Africa, Mauritius, Maldives (through Antrac Maldives) or Sri Lanka you are being made aware of this before the greater rest of the industry and hope you will find it of good value.

Our partner’s contact and preferred shipping agent in the Maldives is as follows:

Abdul Hannan

Director

Antrac Maldives Pvt Ltd

1st Floor, MA. RafRafge, Buruzu Magu

Male’, Rep. Of Maldives

Tel: 00 960 3310096

Fax: 00 960 3310129

Mob: 00 960 7775644

Email: ahannan@alliancemarine.com.mv

 

Antrac Shipping is certainly the most influential shipping agent operating in the Maldives at this time.

Based on the trust and good cooperation we have with Antrac, you may mention that we referred you as a privileged client.

If you like updates such as above kindly link us back from your website as a sign of mutual cooperation.  As your shipping agent we are always looking for better associations.

Text for input is as follows:

Our appointed shipping agent in Mauritius :

Port Agency Services (Mauritius) Ltd

Email: operations@portagent.mu

www.portagent.mu

Let us know when you are done.

We shall ensure that you are kept abreast of all latest news in the industry.

For our contact details you may visit our website: Shipping Agent in Mauritius

Best regards,

The PAS Team.

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End User Certificates – Enforcement of Regulations in the Shipping Sector in Port-Louis, Mauritius

January 18th, 2012 No Comments

New year, new resolutions (more of new regulations actually) by the Mauritian Police. Port Agency Services (Mauritius) Ltd (PAS) have been informed early this year (see attachment) that ALL weapons now transiting through Mauritius, within the shipping industry, should have End User Certificates supporting them. This applies to arms arriving both via air and sea.

At this moment, we are still querying the authorities on the exact procedural details of how this is supposed to be enforced in the shipping business within the anti-piracy context. To note that in the past the Mauritian Police did communicate that they required as many proof of ownership of arms and ammunitions being transited through the Mauritian Port in the context of anti-piracy measures. As port agent we have tried to the best of our abilities to assist in making the operations go as smoothly as possible and trying to avoid extra paperwork wherever possible. The police, on their side too, had been very lenient, till now.  As the volume of arms transits, joining or leaving ships, are ever increasing, the regulations are getting updated which is, we will agree, not a bad thing at all, much to the contrary. This does allow for better traceability.

Current information suggests that you, as a maritime security stakeholder, shall in a short future be required to produce for each and every transit:

  1. An recognized End User certificates (EUC) for all weapons transiting by sea or air via Mauritius.
  2. The EUC should bear a proof of authenticity of the relevant authorities from the country of origin (stamp, signature etc…)
  3. If arms are being sent by Air to Mauritius, this should be agreed with by the Interpol office in the country of Origin. This is still very unclear to us and we have requested the Mauritian authorities to clarify. Paragraph 3 in the police communication indeed does not specify if the Interpol clearance would apply to all cases or only to new weapons being purchased. We are trying to make it so that for sea freights or air freighting of used weapons we may submit copy of the EUC directly to the police rather than going through the Interpol, as this would slow down the process. So far, it seems that the Mauritian authorities just want to have an accountable and hence more responsible system and will assist in keeping the process as efficient as it has been to date.

For now at least what we are sure about is that we shall have to ensure in the future that a copy of the EUC supporting transiting arms be submitted to the authorities before or shortly after arms have transited through Mauritius.

Hence some more news to follow shortly.

Lastly, Paragraph 5, indicates that the fees for storage of arms will soon be revised. We will have more news regarding this part soon.

 

Keeping you posted,

The PAS (Mauritius) TEAM

Download Official Communication from the Mauritian Authorities: Update Anti-piracy for Shipping Industry Mauritius

Visit our website: Shipping Agent in Mauritius

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