{"id":69015,"date":"2026-03-14T18:26:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=69015"},"modified":"2026-03-14T18:27:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T12:57:57","slug":"seafarers-abandonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-03-2026\/seafarers-abandonment","title":{"rendered":"Seafarers Abandonment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As the conflict in West Asia continues and ships remain stranded near the strategic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/06-03-2026\/news-in-short-06-03-2026\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, industry stakeholders are warning of a rising risk of <strong>seafarer abandonment<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Seafarer Abandonment<\/strong><strong>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Seafarer abandonment occurs when shipowners <strong>fail to pay wages, provide supplies, or arrange repatriation<\/strong>, leaving crews stranded on vessels or in foreign ports.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under the <strong>Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006<\/strong>, abandonment includes failure to:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pay wages for at least two months,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provide basic maintenance and supplies, or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Arrange crew repatriation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Abandonment cases are common in busy maritime hubs such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, particularly around the <strong>Persian Gulf region<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Status of Abandonment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>International Transport Workers\u2019 Federation (ITF) data shows <strong>6,223 seafarers were abandoned across 410 ships in 2025<\/strong>. By nationality, India recorded the highest number (1,125), followed by the Philippines, Syria, Indonesia and Ukraine.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India is among the <strong>top three suppliers of seafarers globally<\/strong>. Maritime transport carries <strong>90\u201395% of global trade by volume<\/strong>, with more than <strong>1.8 million seafarers<\/strong> operating merchant ships worldwide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reasons Behind Abandonment<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Financial Stress: <\/strong>Shipowners may abandon vessels due to high operational costs, volatile freight rates, debt, bankruptcy, or geopolitical conflict.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Flag of Convenience (FOC): <\/strong>The FOC system allows ships to register in countries with lenient regulations and lower taxes, weakening labour protections.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>About <strong>30% of the global merchant fleet<\/strong> sails under FOC flags.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nearly <strong>90% of abandoned vessels in 2024<\/strong> were registered under FOCs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Panama recorded the highest abandonment cases among flag states in 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Impacts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Abandoned seafarers often face <\/strong>loss of wages and heavy recruitment debts, shortage of food, fuel and drinking water &amp; inability to disembark due to visa or port restrictions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The conflict has disrupted shipping near the <strong>Strait of Hormuz<\/strong>, through which nearly <strong>one-fifth of global oil trade passes<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India imports nearly <strong>90% of its crude oil<\/strong>, with <strong>46\u201355% sourced from West Asia<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A <strong>$10 increase in oil prices<\/strong> could widen India\u2019s <strong>current account deficit by about 0.36 percentage points<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: TH<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> As the conflict in West Asia continues and ships remain stranded near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, industry stakeholders are warning of a rising risk of seafarer abandonment. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> What is Seafarer Abandonment? <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Seafarer abandonment occurs when shipowners fail to pay wages, provide supplies, or arrange repatriation, leaving crews stranded on vessels or in foreign ports. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, abandonment includes failure to: <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Pay wages for at least two months, <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-03-2026\/seafarers-abandonment \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69015"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69019,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69015\/revisions\/69019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}