Enough is enough!

Seafarers demand end to exploitation

World’s seafarers’ and dockers’ unions demand immediate end to seafarer humanitarian crisis - call for governments to confront the Flag of Convenience system that enables exploitation and fails to protect seafarers.

The world's maritime unions came together at the ITF’s Fair Practices Committee in an unprecedented show of solidarity to demand an immediate end to the humanitarian crisis faced by seafarers in the Persian Gulf.

“We have had enough. Enough exploitation. Enough abandonment. Enough of a system that treats the people who keep the global economy moving as expendable.” (Representatives of the world’s seafarers’ and dockers’ unions)

The unions reiterate the ITF's call for a permanent ceasefire and full de-escalation by all parties, and the urgent initiation of diplomacy grounded in international law. They condemn the illegal bombing carried out by Israel and the United States, and the subsequent retaliatory attacks launched by Iran across the region, in violation of the most fundamental rule of international law: the prohibition on the use of force.

More than 20,000 seafarers remain trapped inside the Strait of Hormuz, facing fear and uncertainty, cut off from their families, and in many cases running short of food, water and fuel.

Seafarers have been killed and injured in attacks in a war zone they did not choose to enter. They are workers largely from the Global South, far from home, carrying the world's cargo on behalf of all our economies and communities. Yet they are being used as pawns in geopolitical conflict.

The ITF and its affiliated unions have been fighting the Flag of Convenience (FOC) system for decades. “We have named it, campaigned against it, documented its human consequences, and demanded that governments act to end it,” they said in a statement yesterday.

“We are naming it again now: the FOC system is the rotten apple at the core of seafarer exploitation. Within this crisis, it is behind many of the abuses our inspectors and support teams are dealing with daily. It is the enabling architecture behind the shadow fleet, behind record-breaking abandonment figures and behind the worst abuses of the Covid-19 crew change crisis. And governments have chosen, year after year, crisis after crisis, to fail seafarers.”

Evidence of a broken system

Since the US/Israel-Iran war began, the ITF reports having received over 2,200 requests for assistance from seafarers in the region. Half relate to unpaid wages and contractual entitlements; around 20% are requests for repatriation; and roughly 10% concern vessels running critically low on essential fuel and supplies. To date, the ITF has assisted in the repatriation of more than 540 seafarers.

This crisis did not arrive without warning. The ITF’s data showed that 2025 was again the worst year on record for seafarer abandonment – with 6,223 seafarers abandoned, a 32% increase on the previous year and the sixth consecutive year of rising cases. A crisis that was already happening.

“The simple fact that a shipowner can buy a flag, exploit a crew, abandon a vessel, and register under a different flag tomorrow – legally – tells you everything about the parlous state of maritime governance,” they warn, adding that unscrupulous employers have failed seafarers repeatedly, without consequence.

“The worst FOC flags have shown a complete derogation of responsibility towards their crews. That is a choice, a choice to collect registration fees over enforcing and protecting seafarers' rights.”

ITF demands

◼︎ Mandatory beneficial ownership transparency for all vessel registrations.
◼︎ Government investigations into the FOC system.
◼︎ Enforcement of the ‘genuine link’ – flag states that cannot demonstrate this link should lose the right to issue flags.
◼︎ Full accountability for flag states that repeatedly breach their Maritime Labour Convention obligations.
◼︎ A guaranteed right to repatriation, wage recovery, and legal redress for abandoned seafarers – with flag states held financially liable where shipowners cannot be found.