Crew abandonment is a growing problem:
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It is obviously necessary to put a stop to this scourge:
Four seafarers, with assistance from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), have seized a cargo ship off the port of Dakar in Senegal after months without pay and mounting danger to their lives. The four crew of the Onda had been...
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Upwards of 1,682 seafarers coming from 103 vessels were cast adrift as 2022 became the worst year on record for reported cases of seafarer abandonment, according to RightShip. Following five years of consistent increases, cases of abandonment have...
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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ombugge
February 20, 2023, 9:11pm
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Not abandoned but not paid properly:
Abandonment of ships and seafarers is increasing:
The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has released its figures for the numbers of vessels abandoned in 2023 which show a worrying 11% increase from the previous year. Seafarers are deemed to have been abandoned if the shipowner fails...
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The ITF reported 129 of the 132 abandonment cases in 2023. Owed wages from these 129 cases are in excess of $12.1m. 1,676 seafarers contacted ITF from abandoned vessels. Indian seafarers were the most abandoned, with more than 400 cases.
The Abandoned Seafarer Log, a quarterly bulletin that maps seafarer abandonment around the world, highlights the hot spots around the world with the Middle East and specifically the UAE very much to the fore.
Every year, the ITF and its affiliates deal with a number of cases of ‘abandonment’, where a shipowner ‘abandons’ their responsibilities for the ship and its crew. The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC) states that abandonment occurs when a...
Easy solution - port state must seize and sell ship to highest bidder and divide the proceeds among the crew. The ship owner and/or operator would be banned from all ports for at least one year in the nation where abandonment occurred, and/or put up a bond high enough to hurt them badly if they default.
Make abandonment profitable for the crew and extremely painful for the owner, operator, and charterer.
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The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has hit out at what it claims is the worst case of serial seafarer abandonment ever seen. Dubai’s Middle East Marine, an operator of tugs, stands accused of systematic abuse and neglect of over...
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Under international law – the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as amended – seafarers should be paid at least once per month. Crews owed two months or more of pay or who are not provided with sufficient food, water and fuel are considered to have been abandoned, which should trigger action by insurers and the ship’s flag state – the country where the ship is registered – in this case Palau.
The ITF has not received a single response from the Palau maritime authorities despite the urgency of the situation seafarers and their families are facing.
https://www.palaureg.com/