human rights

Comment article by Seth Payer, Head of Data and Research at the International Transport Workers' Federation

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has a unique and powerful influence on the wages and conditions of seafarers working on Flag of Convenience ships, through negotiating ITF agreements with shipowners.

• TFG Brands London signs landmark agreement with the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
• TFG, owner of brands including Hobbs and Whistles, is the first fashion company to institute a raft of measures to protect transport workers’ rights. 

LONDON — The fashion group which own

Seafarers’ unions are extremely concerned that four Ukrainian nationals have now been detained without charge by Turkish authorities for more than seven months. The crew are being held over claims the seafarers knew about 176 kilograms of cocaine that was found by officials inside a shipping container onboard the MSC vessel that they were operating.

Twelve seafarers who have not been paid for more than nine months have been given a boost as the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure fined the ship’s manager 30,000 UAE Dirham (approximately USD$8000).

Ten seafarers from Aframax oil tanker Wind (IMO: 9252967) have been freed from slave-like conditions only after the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) demanded their release.

Many of the crew were more than two months over the end of their contracts, raising safety concerns, and had not been paid for months at a time (currently, one-month’s pay is owned).

The master of a ship on which a container exploded into flames in July 2021 has still not been allowed to go home more than six months later. Neither he nor his crew have been paid since March 2021.

Angelica Remegio is desperate. She is alone with her two young children while her partner is at sea on a Chinese fishing vessel. He's been away for four months. In all that time, his family has not seen him – nor a single peso of his pay, a portion of which is supposed to be sent to them by Angelica’s partner’s ‘manning agent’.

We have two kids who need milk and diapers and other basic items,” she told the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

The Able Maritime Seafarers Inc manning agency in the Philippines is close to being red listed by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) after a series of incidents where crews’ rights have been abused.

The ITF is calling for the immediate release and repatriation of the MV Wakashio (IMO: 9337119) crew who have been held by Mauritian authorities now for over a year.

Today is Day of the Seafarer and this year's theme is ‘a future fair for seafarers’. But there is little point contemplating what a fair future looks like for the world’s seafarers while the injustices of the present so loudly demand our attention -– and action.