Ship abandonment

Ships are frequently abandoned by their owners if it becomes less expensive than continuing to operate, paying debts, port fees, crew wages, etc. The abandoned ships may remain, often with their crews as hostages, in a port for extended periods, with the crew unpaid, and possibly dangerous cargo onboard.^[1] In many cases the crew cannot leave without losing their right to be paid.^[2]^[3] Abandonment has been described as a "cancer" of the shipping industry.^[4]

If cases go to court, the sale of the vessel can be ordered, but this can take many months. Jurisdiction is often unclear because many abandoned vessels sailed under "flags of convenience" (open registries). An amendment to the Maritime Labour Convention made it easier for unpaid crew to be paid via insurance.

This practice should not be confused with abandoning a sinking vessel.

In 2020 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) database listed 438 ships worldwide, with 5,767 crew members, abandoned since 2004; not all cases are referred to the IMO, so the actual number is larger, but unknown. In 2020, by August 470 seafarers on 31 vessels had been abandoned.^[4]

Seafarers' problems, including abandonment, in the Arab world and Iran were sufficiently severe for the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to set up a network for the region; its coordinator said "The flood of calls to ITF in the Arab region has never stopped. Since we created the network and seafarers [became] aware of us, the numbers of calls are going up and up". As of 2020 the network was dealing with 15 cases of abandonment.

Notable cases[]

A notorious case was the 2013 abandonment of MV Rhosus in Beirut, Lebanon, the unloading and storing for years of its explosive cargo, and the ensuing catastrophic explosion on 4 August 2020.^[4] A previous crew had mutinied due to unpaid wages. When the ship docked in Beirut, it was arrested for non-payment of port dues, and the owner did not respond to the captain's communications. The captain and three crew members remained on the ship, unpaid, for a year, relying on the port agent for food and water to keep them alive. The explosive cargo was unloaded as collateral for the unpaid debts, then left for years in a warehouse until it exploded.^[4]

Celanova, a broken-down Spanish-flagged carrying liquefied gas with 15 crew trapped in Manila, Philippines as of August 2020. The ITF and the International Labour Organization intervened to allow the crew to land.^[4]

References[]

^ Urbina, Ian (2020). "Behind the Beirut blast: the perils of abandoned ships and cargo". San Francisco Chronicle.
^ McVeigh, Karen (12 April 2019). "Abandoned at sea: the crews cast adrift without food, fuel or pay". The Guardian.
^ McVeigh, Karen (15 February 2021). "Four years at sea, now just metres from shore: 'living hell' of stranded UAE ship". The Guardian.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Karen McVeigh; Andrew Roth (20 August 2020). "'Cancer of the industry': Beirut's blast proves lethal risk of abandoning ships". The Guardian.

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[1] Urbina, Ian (2020). "Behind the Beirut blast: the perils of abandoned ships and cargo". San Francisco Chronicle.

[2] McVeigh, Karen (12 April 2019). "Abandoned at sea: the crews cast adrift without food, fuel or pay". The Guardian.

[3] McVeigh, Karen (15 February 2021). "Four years at sea, now just metres from shore: 'living hell' of stranded UAE ship". The Guardian.

[rhosus-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Karen McVeigh; Andrew Roth (20 August 2020). "'Cancer of the industry': Beirut's blast proves lethal risk of abandoning ships". The Guardian.

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