IMO is continuing to focus its efforts on improving the situation normally through the diplomatic efforts of the Secretariat and the IMO Secretary-General. The consequence of abandonment of seafarers has been recognized as a dangerous offspring by Secretary-General Kitack Lim. The IMO Legal Committee is the main forum where the exit is discussed. Updates from IMO and ILO secretariats are provided and the Committee meetings provide an opportunity for the publish of abandonment to be raised. The Legal Committee is attended by representatives from Member States a well as relevant international NGOS in advisory status representing the transportation diligence, charities and seafarers. Seafarer-related issues constitute a continuing thread that has run through IMO ‘s work for several decades. On the one bridge player, the clear understanding that seafarers are ultimately creditworthy for implementing many of IMO ‘s measures have led to standards for mariner training, documentation and watchkeeping being developed and enshrined in the STCW Convention.
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Reading: Seafarer abandonment
On the other hand, a associate concern for their benefit, both as employees and as individuals, is discernible in IMO ’ s continuing work on issues such as tire, clean treatment and liability and compensation for seafarers. IMO ’ south annual Day of the Seafarer, celebrated each year on June 25th, is the Organization ‘s global political campaign to give wide-eyed recognition to seafarers. Seafarer desertion is a unplayful problem that can blight the lives of those caught up in it. It must be tackled and it needs continual cooperation, not merely between IMO and ILO and non-governmental organizations devoted to seaman ’ s benefit, but with flag States, interface States and other industry groups besides. We all have a human duty to protect seafarers
Guidelines and MLC regulations
A articulation working group of IMO and the International Labour Organization ( ILO ), which reported to both IMO ‘s Legal Committee and ILO ‘s governing bodies, developed Guidelines on Liability and Compensation regarding Claims for Death, Personal Injury and Abandonment of Seafarers then, new obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention ( MLC 2006 ) were developed and adopted in 2014. These require shipowners to have compulsory indemnity to cover abandonment of seafarers, american samoa well as claims for death or long-run disability of seafarers. ( See 2014 MLC amendments ) In 2017, the MLC amendments entered into impel .
Seafarer abandonment – a real problem
The nerve-racking and inhumane consequences for the abandoned crew on board, and for their families, may be illustrated with the holocene cases of a total of 14 indonesian gang in Port Alang, India, on board the Miss Gaunt and Northwind. Both ships are registered in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the register of Curaçao. In January and February 2019, IMO continuously received messages from the crowd that they were not being paid by the shipowner nor by the insurance company. therefore, they could not provide the necessary means of living for their families and young children whom they besides had not seen for more than seven months. meanwhile, the crew besides could not be repatriated because the port State, India claimed that the ships could not be moved to a safe lay-up harbor and that a new substitution ( skeleton ) gang was required.
furthermore, these two desertion cases were connected to the abandonment of another eight indonesian seafarers on board the AHT Carrier in the port of Maputo in Mozambique. All three ships are insured with the same insurance company and beneficially owned or managed by the lapp party.
Through the continuous and significant affair of the IMO and ILO Secretariats, the insurance company has nowadays paid four months ‘ wages of all of the crew of the Miss Gaunt. All the crew members were last repatriated by the end of March 2019, and a exchangeable solution seems to be under room for the crew of the Northwind. The crew of the AHT Carrier was besides repatriated. however, these cases can only be considered as being resolved if all outstanding wages have been paid in full. Statistics
The full phone number of cases that have been recorded in the database since 2004 ( as at August 2020 ) is 438 ( 5,767 seafarers ). In 2020, 31 cases ( concerning 470 seafarers ) have been recorded to date.
There has been a dramatic rise in cases over the past three years following the entrance into force on 18 January 2017 of the 2014 amendments to MLC, 2006 concerning fiscal security system in cases of desertion. In 2019, 474 seafarers on 40 ships were abandoned, while in 2018 a full of 44 instances were reported and 1n 2017 a sum of 55, according to the IMO/ILO database. In the previous five years, an median of equitable 12 to 17 ships a year were abandoned.
Cases – examples
On 12 December 2018, IMO notified the United Arab Emirates in their capacity as a flag and port State that a entire of 31 seafarers were recently reported as abandoned by ISWAN through ICS on circuit board the following ships : Azraqmoiah ; Tamim Aldar ; MV Al Nader ; MT Tamim and Abdulrazaq. Some of these abandonment cases lasted a long as 32 months.
Following the introduction into wedge on 18 January 2017 of the 2014 amendments to MLC, 2006, concerning fiscal security in cases of abandonment, 97 abandonment cases have been reported to the joint IMO/ILO database. Within the period between 18 January 2017 and 31 December 2018, there were 11 report cases of desertion where the ease up State was a Party to MLC, 2006 but had not even sent to the ILO their contract of credence of the 2014 amendments. These 11 cases refer ships registered in Belize, the Netherlands in esteem of Curaçao, India and Mongolia. Of these 11 cases, the majority ( 7 ) are still disputed or unresolved.
Joint database on reported incidents of abandonment of seafarers
With the support of the International Ship Suppliers ’ Association ( ISSA ), ILO and IMO established a joint database on report incidents of abandonment of seafarers ( it includes all cases reported after 1 January 2004 ).
The database can be accessed here.
The accuracy of the abandoned mariner database is critical not entirely for supporting the concerned parties to help resolve incidents of abandonment, but besides for providing information to the public, including entities involved in providing fiscal security for cases of abandonment, as required by the 2014 amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 ( MLC )
The 2001 IMO/ILO Guidelines on abandon seafarers say that a lawsuit of desertion is characterized by the rupture of ties between the shipowner and mariner.
Read more: The Dreadblades (quest)
Abandonment occurs when the shipowner fails to fulfil certain fundamental obligations to the mariner relating to timely repatriation and payment of great wage and to the planning of basic necessities of animation, bury alia, adequate food, accommodation, and medical caution. Abandonment will have occurred when the overlord of the ship has been left without any fiscal means in deference of ship operation.
Categories on the database include :
“ resolved cases ” “ open cases ” “ disputed cases ” “ ‘ nonoperational cases ” ’ which, though not resolved, are nobelium long active .
Process to address a case of abandonment
The process agreed by IMO/ILO is that :
- a Member State or organization accredited to ILO or IMO sends information to ILO regarding a new case.
- ILO will send this information for verification to IMO to check information given on the IMO number, flag, type of vessel, company and registered owner.
- IMO sends (modified as necessary) the information back to ILO; and following consultations between IMO and ILO, the information is entered on a restricted, i.e. non-public and password-restricted website.
- Interested parties are notified by IMO of new entries and then have an opportunity to provide further information within 10 working days.
- Thereafter the information is released for public access at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/seafarers/seafarersbrowse.home. If necessary, different points of view will be reflected.
- A case of abandonment would be considered as resolved if, and only if, ILO has received clear advice from the Member State or organization having originally provided the information that:
- the totality of the crew has been successfully repatriated; and
- the totality of all outstanding remuneration and contractual entitlements have been paid and duly received by all the crew members
IMO involvement
generally speaking, the IMO Secretariat will contact the ease up State and the port State ( location of abandonment ) to ask for information and to advise on relevant guidelines and application of the MLC 2014 amendments. The IMO Secretariat may request a meet with the relevant representative ( sulfur ) and ask for expedience in resolving the particular case. Therefore IMO Secretariat acts at a diplomatic degree. Unreported incidents late in 2016 concerns were expressed, by both diligence and media, that there were desertion cases that had not been reported and some information in the database was not stream. The ILO, IMO, International Chamber of Shipping ( ICS ) and International Transport Workers Federation ( ITF ) have since been working to address these matters on a continuous basis, and the database has been updated consequently. Who can report? A Member State or an arrangement accredited to ILO or IMO is entitled to report an abandonment incident. The following stakeholders are consequently entitled to report to the database : Flag States may report cases of abandonment in their jurisdictions. The State the flag of which the abandoned vessel is flying has the basal duty to repatriate the abandon mariner or fisher if the shipowner fails to make arrangements for, or to meet the cost of, repatriation. Port States may report cases of desertion in their jurisdictions. The State in the port of which the abandoned vessel is situated has a secondary coil province to repatriate the abandoned mariner or fisherman. Labour-supplying States may report cases of abandonment in their jurisdictions. The area of nationality of the abandoned mariner or fisher besides has a duty to repatriate the vacate mariner or fisherman if the pin or port States fail to do so. nongovernmental organization with advisory or observer condition in IMO or ILO.
How to report a case of seafarer abandonment
Governments and organizations entitled to report ( see above ) and wishing to report an abandonment case are invited to enter the appropriate information in the follow PDF template ( with fillable fields ) available at : hypertext transfer protocol : //mindovermetal.org/en/wcmsp5/groups/public/ — -ed_dialogue/ — -sector/documents/genericdocument/wcms_531324.pdf
The information should be communicated :
- by email to: mindovermetal.999@gmail.com (recommended);
- by directly filling out and sending the form on the website of the database:
- https://mindovermetal.org/en/dyn/seafarers/seafarersbrowse.home
- by fax to: +41 22 799 70 50; or
- by mail to:
- IMO, 4 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SR, United Kingdom; and
- ILO, 4 Rue des Morillons, 1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland.
Relevant NGOs
Relevant NGOs in consultative status with IMO include the following :
- International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF);
- International Chamber of Shipping (ICS);
- International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA);
- International Maritime Health Association (IMHA);
- International Association of Classification Societies (IACS);
- International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations (IFSMA);
- International Ship Suppliers & Services Association (ISSA);
- International Group of Protection and Indemnity Associations (P&I Clubs);
- International Harbour Masters’ Association (IHMA);
- International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH); and
- The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew).
NGOs with consultative or observer status in ILO include the take after :
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC);
- International Organisation of Employers (IOE);
- World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU);
- Organization of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU);
- Business Africa;
- African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation;
- Democratic Organization of African Workers’ Trade Unions;
- International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions;
- General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries;
- Association of Latin American Industrialists;
- Latin American Central of Workers;
- Caribbean Employers’ Confederation;
- Caribbean Congress of Labour;
- Permanent Congress of Trade Union Unity of the Workers of Latin America;
- Inter-American Regional Organisation of Workers;
- ASEAN Confederation of Employers;
- Confederation of Asia Pacific Employers;
- Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists;
- European Trade Union Confederation; and
- General Confederation of Trade Unions.
