New measures to improve conditions for seafarers, including those who have been abandoned, were adopted at a joint meeting of International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
The new guidelines seek to address the significant rise in cases of abandonment of crews reported to the ILO, which have risen from less than 20 cases per year between 2011 to 2016, to 40 in 2019, 85 in 2020, 95 in 2021 and 114 cases as of mid-December 2022.
The guidelines aim to improve coordination among countries, including flag States, port States, States in which seafarers are national or resident, and States in which recruitment and placement services operate, in order to resolve abandonment cases more quickly, including getting seafarers paid and repatriated home to their families.
The new guidelines set out procedures to be taken by States if a shipowner fails to fulfil their obligations to arrange and cover the cost of repatriation of seafarers, outstanding wages and other contracted entitlements, and the provision of essential needs, including medical care. In these circumstances seafarers are then considered abandoned.
The ILO – IMO meeting also discussed the importance of the joint ILO-IMO database relating to abandoned seafarers, and the need to update and improve it.
The first meeting of the Joint ILO–IMO Tripartite Working Group brought together more than 250 representatives and observers from Governments and Shipowners’ and Seafarers’ representative organizations, to identify and address seafarer issues.
The meeting was held in hybrid format in Geneva, Switzerland, from 13–15 December 2022. The outcomes of the meeting will be reported to the ILO Governing Body and IMO Legal Committee in 2023.
Source: ILO
