Seafarer Abandonment

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 shipowner;

• fails to cover the cost of the seafarer’s repatriation; or
• has left the seafarer without the necessary maintenance and support; or
• has otherwise unilaterally severed their ties with the seafarer including failure to pay contractual wages for a period of at least two months’

When this happens, the ITF Seafarers' Support team and our team of Inspectors will try their best to repatriate the crew and recover any outstanding wages.

All of the cases listed here have been reported to the International Labour Organization’s Abandonment of Seafarers database which provides further details, and also provides information on cases reported by governments and other organisations.

Get in touch about abandonment:

• If you’re a seafarer, and you think your ship may have been abandoned, you should contact ITF Seafarer Support
• If you’re a journalist interested in learning more about one or several of these abandonment cases, please contact the ITF’s media team