Information and education need to be turbocharged to protect those at sea
By Felicity Landon
Seafarers unpaid for months; forced to work in unsafe conditions; surviving on rice and very little else; not allowed to disembark at the end of their contract; barred from coming ashore to see a doctor; in debt because an agent illegally charged recruitment fees … Mohamed Arrachedi has seen it all.
As the International Transport Workers’ Federation’s flag of convenience (FoC) network co-ordinator for the Arab World and Iran, he says: “When you go into the subject deeply, each time you are surprised to see the inactivity, inaction and impunity with which some shipowners are dealing with their crew.
“In some cases, we have seafarers who have not been paid for 11 months. What were you waiting for, I ask? Send me the contract … and they tell me, ‘I don’t have a contract’.
“Communication is often difficult – they might send me a WhatsApp when they catch some Wi-Fi at the seafarers’ centre or when their ship gets an internet connection for a while from another ship. They send a message saying they need help, but then disappear.”
Cases of abandonment are proliferating: the ILO’s official stats show that 95 were reported in 2021, 118 in 2022 and 132 in 2023. By mid- July this year, the number had already exceeded 160.
The ITF is seeing an alarming rise in instances of fictitious P&I insurance certificates and fake ship registration. The growth of the ‘dark fleet’ and sanctions-breaking shipping, and the emergence of dubious new flags are adding to the concern. Arrachedi has handled cases of abandonment where the claimed flag state does not even exist.
The Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) makes it clear that every vessel should have a valid insurance certificate on board. “When they don’t have it, that’s a very big question mark. Flags that have ratified the MLC are required to make sure at least once a year that the ship renews its documents. When we receive complaints about seafarers not paid for several months, we ask for the P&I club – but you don’t find it.
“We see more and more cases of insurances that are falsified with impunity. The owner puts the false certificate on the ship, cheating the seafarers. We had another case where a ship was abandoned in Lebanon – we went to the flag but discovered that the registration was fake.”
Exploitation ‘chronically structural’
Arrachedi describes seafarer exploitation as ‘chronically structural’. “Of course there are many good shipowners. This is an economic activity to make prof- it – there is nothing bad in that. But there should be some rules. It is very normal in any economic activity to have problems. But this is something else due to the peculiarities and complexities of working at sea.
“A seafarer from Myanmar can be on a ship owned in Germany, with a Panama or Liberia flag. His contract could be from a crewing agency in his country, and management of the ship could be from Cyprus. This seafarer is moving between many countries. So, when he has a problem, he is much more vulnerable than me. I can go to a lawyer – he or she cannot.”
Seafarers can be victimised or blacklisted for reporting issues to the ITF, even though they have the legal right to do so. In an industry where agencies and others share information, a seafarer might never again get a job. Arrachedi says owners also use the non-supply of provisions and water as a lever when negotiating with the ITF or others over abandoned seafarers. “We have situations where seafarers are living on one meal a day, surviving on bread and rice, have no fuel on board so cannot cook.”
He emphasises that the MLC has been ratified by many FoC countries and even flag states that have not ratified it are still subject to the MLC rules in any port state where a vessel calls. Port State Control inspectors have a big role to play. That doesn’t help, of course, if a vessel is in international waters.
Under the MLC, if an owner fails to meet their obligations, the ship register must take up the responsibility. But there are no mechanisms to ensure the rules are implemented.
“Many registries have one maritime inspector, don’t reply to emails, don’t take this seriously because they don’t want to make the owners angry – because of the competition [between flags]. We have had serious cases of unpaid wages, people who need to go to hospital, etc., then when the flag state comes under pressure, often from the media coverage, where you might expect them to use the instruments of the flag state to force the owner to take action, they just kick them off the registry and wash their hands of it.”
Question of accountability
Steven Jones, founder of the Seafarer Happiness Index, says: “We talk about how robust our regulations are but within that, there isn’t anyone to hold someone to account. If you just say ‘get out’, it’s like a school kicking out the problem kid – all you are going to have is a ne’er-do-well causing chaos somewhere else, and that approach is not going to get us where we want to be.
Maybe it needs a fundamental rethink – a ‘naughty step’, if you like, where the vessel has to stay with the flag, but the flag puts it on notice and into a process for remediation.”
Jones believes there is enough regulation, but implementation is the missing part of the jigsaw and mechanisms are being stretched.
“There has been a real boom post- Covid of these new flag states popping up. They are attracting tonnage and say they are in the process of becoming members of the IMO. You go to the website and the journey they say they are going to go on might look quite impressive – but what if you never embark on it?”
Seafarers can find themselves on a ship where suddenly the registry – and reality – shifts. “It’s back to the issue of exploitation. It is far harder to have the protections or reassurances in place when you have this constantly evolving landscape.”
He highlights illegal recruitment fees as one of the biggest problems, particularly in India. “Young people are being seduced into ‘pay this money, get this job, have all the riches’ – but who knows at what point? Once you are into criminality, who knows who knows what? You end up with vulnerable people being exploited, duped, conned, robbed of money, sent away on vessels no-one would want to be trapped on and trapped into this work – and even worse, they are not being paid.”
Can seafarers protect themselves? “It is immensely difficult. Education is a hugely important part of this. Before someone becomes a seafarer, they are not a seafarer, so there are no links or tangible connections with them. We are talking about seafarer supply nations with different levels of understanding of the mechanisms and it is too easy to exploit a person. Not only are they going into a terrible situation, but they are also paying to do that. Then they go on the ship and none of the promises are fulfilled – they were never going to be. The seafarer finds themselves in a terrible spiral of debt, can’t leave the ship, not being paid and perhaps staying longer just in case they get paid.”
Arrachedi says seafarers have a responsibility too. “There is no excuse to say, ‘I didn’t know’. When you receive an offer, you can contact your union or ITF – you can Google and find the information, get in touch with us and ask if there is any problem. To jump on a vessel just like that, it is absolutely a responsibility.”
Information first
In an effort to educate seafarers, the ITF has started running awareness seminars in seafarer supply nations including the Philippines, Myanmar, India and Egypt. A series of presentations will be run over five or six days, to more than 100 people at a time, explaining seafarer rights, the provisions of the MLC, and what to do or who to call for help with a situation.
However, as Arrachedi acknowledges, poverty is a driving issue. It’s easy to see why someone with a wife and three children to support, who hasn’t had a job for three years, would be desperate enough to take up any offer.
He says a potential solution is to require the crew agent or employer to pay a deposit of U$100,000 to cover seafarer wages. It’s important to remember that a seafarer’s contract is not with the vessel or the owner but with the agent or whoever employed him or her. Hence, the agent cannot legally refuse to pay on the basis that the owner is not paying them (but of course, they do).
Despite all the technology developments, ships still need human beings to drive them, he says. “Vessels moving 95% of goods in the world are still reliant on seafarers and we must take care of these seafarers and talk about their health, wages and rights.”
The Covid-19 pandemic was a period when all seafarers were brought to their limits, says Nikolaos Koletsis, senior policy officer for maritime transport at the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF). “There was a lot of trying to create flexibility around the requirements of the law,” he says. “It also gave us a lot of indication that some things were not happening, not just because of the pandemic but because they were the normal case before, and unfortunately that continues to happen after the pandemic.”
Referring to the ETF’s umbrella organisation, he says that ITF inspectors – in 111 ports in 56 countries – are well placed to pick up issues. “They are in the field, getting on board the ship, in touch with the seafarers, not theory. They see the real parameters of the problem; they are very experienced, and they can give you a full view of the issue.”
The most common cases of exploitation of seafarers are not paying wages, failing to provide essentials including food and water, abandoning them at sea in unsafe conditions, and persistent violation of employment agreements or collective agreement provisions, says Koletsis. There are also cases with manning agencies where crews’ rights have been abused, he adds.
Lost income
Not being paid is “the first and biggest case of exploitation”, he says, particularly bearing in mind that the reason why seafarers leave their families and are working at sea is to get paid and send money to their families.
He says ITF figures show that almost €120m was recovered in unpaid wages for seafarers in 2022, and there were 2,200 cases of breaching contract requirements. There are relatively few cases reported within Europe, he adds, mainly because PSC inspections are stricter. “If a ship with a low-standard FoC is breaking the law, they try to avoid the European ports.”
Seafarers not being paid for a few months is often the precursor for abandonment, he adds. “And when a ship is abandoned in port, then the seafarers have to deal with the authorities. Sometimes authorities have very strict and strange requirements, making the seafarers accountable, not the shipowner, for the safety and security of the ship in the port, so they cannot leave. There are cases of seafarers staying on the ship for one or two years without any possibility of getting off.”
The responsibilities of the ITF inspector are not only to check the conditions on board and help seafarers to deal with any problem, but also to teach seafarers about their rights – which they do not always understand, says Koletsis.
Seafarers can report problems regarding manning agencies and other issues through the ITF webpage. Also, through the Seafarers’ Breach of Rights Index, which lists companies and individuals that deny and abuse seafarers’ basic human and trade union rights, they can report any kind of exploitation, including bullying, harassment or abuse. “Sometimes seafarers don’t know where to address their issues,” he explains.
He says the FoC system is one of the “systemic issues of this complicated industry” and wants to see changes in the way ships are registered.
“I can’t find any reason or logic of having a shipowner in one specific place being able to register a ship in a country with which they have no links, just to avoid paying taxes or to hire third country cheap labour or avoid inspections or quality controls.
“Ship owners talk all the time about a level playing field and competitiveness, but this is totally disrupting the competitive and level playing field. Decent shipping companies have quality flags that pay fair wages. This registration system distorts the competition. But it needs political will to see change, and a lot of pressure from all sides.”
Comparative pay
The ETF is pressing the European Com- mission to mandate that all crew, regardless of nationality, residence or flag of the ship they are working on, should enjoy European pay and conditions as soon as the ship is operating in Europe.
“I am Greek working in Belgium – I don’t have a Greek salary but am working in accordance with the place where I live and work. If someone from Africa comes to Europe, they must enjoy the salary of the European country. This is not happening in the shipping industry.”
With a current and predicted shortage of seafarers, there is now a big trend to source new seafarers from poorer African countries, warns Koletsis. “It is like trying to find a pool of cheap labour for the shipping industry, when the discussion is always about how to make the sector more attractive. In order to make a profession attractive, you have to meet first the basic conditions of fair payment and good working conditions.”
Steven Jones fears that the situation is getting worse rather than better. “Where we were seeing decades of previous progress – it was far from perfect, but we made real strides in safety, security, etc. – all of a sudden it feels like something else is going on. The geopolitical situation is opening up the dark fleet and we have almost an open world and a closed world of shipping.
That is where vulnerable people can be duped. If you are involved in an oil spill somewhere and the authorities grab the ship you are on board, you are on the hook. There is no protection when on a ship with a terrible flag.
“But overall, there isn’t that focal point to get us through the wider issue of things that happen out at sea. If the flag state can just push away the bad without being compelled to fix or improve things, then where does the buck stop?”
