Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2023)

PART 2
SHIPS ARRIVING FROM FOREIGN PORTS

4.   Declarations of Health

The master of a ship approaching Saint Lucia from a foreign port shall ascertain the state of health of all persons on board and shall prepare and sign a declaration of health in the form in Schedule A hereto. If a ship's surgeon is carried on board, he or she shall countersign the declaration.

5.   Radio pratique

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   (1)   The master of any ship approved by the Quarantine Authority as eligible for radio pratique may apply for the same by sending to the visiting officer not more than 12 and not less than 4 hours before the expected arrival of the ship at a port of Saint Lucia a wireless message embodying such of the items of information set out in Schedule B as are applicable.

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   (2)   Every such message shall, except in cases in which the Quarantine Authority otherwise directs, conform with the section relating to routine quarantine messages of the 1931 International Code of Signals.

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   (3)   The visiting officer may grant radio pratique to the ship if he or she is satisfied from the wireless message aforesaid and other information (if any) in his or her possession that no person on board the ship has symptoms which may be indicative of infectious disease and that there are no circumstances in relation to the ship requiring medical attention. The visiting officer (if he or she is not the health officer) shall, on receiving information in the wireless message or otherwise that a person on board the ship has symptoms which may be indicative of infectious disease or that there are circumstances in relation to the ship requiring medical attention, inform the health officer.

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   (4)   When a ship is granted radio pratique, the master shall, immediately on arrival at a port of Saint Lucia, deliver or cause to be delivered to the health officer the relevant declaration of health, the ship's bill of health (if any) and the ship's deratisation certificate or deratisation exemption certificate (if any). Any bill of health, deratisation certificate or deratisation exemption certificate shall be returned after inspection.

6.   Flags and signals

The master of a ship coming from a foreign port shall comply with the provisions as to flags and signal lights contained in Schedule C.

7.   Ships not granted radio pratique to be visited

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   (1)   Every ship arriving in Saint Lucia from a foreign port, if radio pratique has not been granted, shall be visited on arrival in Saint Lucia by the visiting officer and the master shall thereupon surrender to the visiting officer the declaration of health and present to him or her for inspection any other ship's papers which the visiting officer may desire to inspect.

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   (2)   The visiting officer is hereby authorised to put to the master and to the ship's surgeon (if any), and to any person on board the ship all such questions as he or she may consider advisable for the execution of these Regulations.

8.   Restrictions on boarding or leaving ships coming from foreign ports

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   (1)   A person, other than a pilot or a person acting in execution of these Regulations, shall not without the general or special permission of the health officer, board or leave a ship coming from a foreign port before the same has been granted pratique, and the master shall cause all reasonable steps to be taken to enforce this provision.

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   (2)   Before any person, other than a pilot or a person acting in the execution of these Regulations, leaves a ship arriving in Saint Lucia from a foreign port, he or she shall furnish all such information as may reasonably be required by the visiting officer or by an authorised officer, including information as to his or her name, state of health and origin, and information as to places recently visited and his or her destination and his or her address there and shall, if so required by the health officer or an authorised officer, complete and sign a certificate of origin and destination in a form approved by the Quarantine Authority.

9.   Granting of pratique by visiting officer

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   (1)   A visiting officer may grant pratique to a ship on visiting it if he or she is satisfied from the declaration of health and otherwise that during the voyage, or if the voyage has lasted longer than 6 weeks, during the 6 weeks immediately preceding arrival—

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      (a)     there has been no death or case of illness on board suspected to be due to infectious disease; and

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      (b)     there has been no plague or undue mortality among rats or mice on board; and

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      (c)     the ship has not called at an infected port; and

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      (d)     the ship was not overcrowded or in an insanitary condition.

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   (2)   If the visiting officer is not a health officer and is not so satisfied—

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      (a)     he or she may refuse pratique and thereupon the ship is considered to be in quarantine and the visiting officer shall immediately inform the health officer of such refusal;

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      (b)     the health officer shall visit the ship and thereupon regulation 7 shall apply as though the ship had not been previously visited.

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   (3)   If the visiting officer is a health officer, then even if he or she is not so satisfied, he or she shall grant pratique if he or she is of opinion that none of the measures for which provision is made in these Regulations, other than those relating to persons or things disembarked, require to be taken or that all such measures as are appropriate have been duly taken. If he or she is not of that opinion he or she may refuse pratique and thereupon the ship is considered to be in quarantine.

10.   Offences

The master of a ship, ship's surgeon, or other person (as the case may be) who contravenes or fails to comply with the provisions of regulations 4, 5(4), 6, 7, or 8 commits an offence.