Abandonment of seafarers is one of the most severe challenges faced by maritime workers and is defined in the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC 2006). It refers to a situation where shipowners fail to meet their obligations, such as wages, repatriation or essential resources such as food, water and medical care, leaving seafarers stranded and without necessary support for an extended period. This paper analyses the cases of abandonment available in the joint International Labour Organisation (ILO) / International Maritime Organisation (IMO) database on abandonment of seafarers from 2019 to the end of 2024. The analysis focuses on the different roles of flag state, port state and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). The most frequently abandoned ship flags were compared with the white, grey and black list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the MLC 2006 detention database. Despite international conventions, there are still cases of abandonment worldwide, and they have a constant upward trend. In the analysed period, 795 cases of abandonment were registered. 72,45% of all cases reported in the analysed period, occurred within the last three years. 75,47% of all abandonment incidents involved ships registered under the Flag of Convenience. In resolving abandonment cases, all entities involved, such as the ILO, IMO, ITF, flag state and port state need to work together to resolve abandonment cases as quickly as possible, considering the mental health and well-being of seafarers. The paper proposes measures to strengthen the protection of seafarers and ensure accountability in the maritime industry.

Marine accidents are one of the most important phenomena of the maritime industry since the past. In addition to causing loss of life and property, these accidents also have a negative impact on the environment. This research aims to determine the relationships between the factors in marine accidents causing pollution. In this context, 208 marine accident reports in the IHS Sea-Web database, which occurred between 1999 and 2023 and resulted in marine pollution, were analyzed by Chi-square and Cramer's V methods. According to the results of the analyses, significant relationships were found, especially between vessel flag, vessel type, and gross tonnage. High-tonnage vessels and bulk carriers, containerships and general cargo vessels were mainly flying the flag of convenience. Vessel status was the only variable that had a significant relationship with the pollution quantity. Vessels in maneuvering and on voyage are more likely to have a high amount of pollution, while the amount of pollution in accidents occurring in bunkering is low. The research findings can provide stakeholders take preventive measures and raise awareness to prevent pollution resulting from accidents.

Romania no longer has a commercial maritime fleet, but it has a large number of active sailors and officers, two naval universities, with faculties of navigation and naval electromechanics, a university with a faculty of shipbuilding and another with a faculty of marine engineering. A small number of Romanian shipowners own maritime vessels, but these are registered under a flag of convenience in other states. This paper analyzes the situation of crewing companies (placement of labor, seafarers, abroad), the problems faced by these independent companies and what are the resistance strategies for this segment of the maritime market. The scientific research is based on the study of official documents, management analyses and other information obtained directly from several sources, but also from several seafarers, about the real situation of maritime seafaring personnel, their relationships with the independent crewing company and with main shipping companies, and the situations they face on board maritime vessels. The work is original, with many new elements and information for the current specialized literature.

ABSTRACT This essay engages with the theme of infrastructural disruption from the perspective of a French deep-sea cable-repair ship (flying under a flag of convenience) docked in Cape Town's harbor. This vessel sails both the Atlantic and Indian coasts of Africa to fix malfunctions and ruptures in the undersea infrastructure through which Internet traffic flows between nations and continents. It is this invisible network of thin, pale cables that hardwires the so-called “Age of Disruption” (Stiegler, 2019). Yet the ship and the infrastructure it repairs also bring us closer to the question of durability – that which is lasting, persistent and constantly maintained. Using a collection of images, photos and ethnographic vignettes, the cable-repair ship allows us to explore durabilities along two axes. First, there are the imperial afterlives of colonial geographies that live in underwater networks of connectivity. Second, there is the hidden and everyday work of maintenance that “navigates” against infrastructural disruptions and, simultaneously, makes (digital) disruptions and innovations possible. Through these different durabilities, the cable repair ship shores up competing notions of disruption, at once something that can be avoided through the work of material repair, and something that should be embraced towards alternatives to dated legacy systems.

Flag of convenience and the tragedy of the commons in maritime transportation

This article addresses the question of whether seafarers, regardless of the ordinary international jurisdictions in the country of ship registration or at the domicile of their employer, have a jurisdiction in Switzerland at their disposal to be able to enforce their rights effectively. The significance of maritime trade routes cannot be overstated, and demand continues to be strong. At the same time, many seafarers suffer from precarious working conditions, being often unable to enforce their wage demands and other claims. A key problem is the registration of vessels in flag of convenience (FOC) states which generally lack an effective judicial system or where access to justice may be constrained. Many shipping companies that profit greatly from maritime transport are domiciled in Switzerland, allowing the conclusion that jurisdiction in Switzerland can be established by piercing the corporate veil or, subsidiarily, asserting jurisdiction by necessity. Reasons that justify the registration in an FOC state are hardly apparent and the liability of a benefiting Swiss group company and thus a place of jurisdiction in Switzerland can well be justified. In any case, Switzerland has enshrined the jurisdiction by necessity in positive law and a too restrictive handling by Swiss courts could violate the human right of free access to justice.

The concept of ‘flag of convenience’ is ubiquitous in literature on maritime governance. First popularised by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), it has served as a touchstone concept in maritime policy discourse, and as a metaphor for the interaction between state and corporate actors in both maritime affairs and the globalised economy more broadly. This article argues, however, that the conceptions of public and private as ontologically separate that underpin existing literature on maritime governance have obscured notable shifts in the practices of flags of convenience in recent decades. More specifically (and drawing on assemblage theory), it argues that while flags of convenience have been framed exclusively as entities that allow shipping interests to escape regulatory control, certain open registers have been re-constituted as hubs of knowledge and materiality that ease and accelerate commercial circulation in a variety of ways. The article concludes by drawing attention to the volatility of the politics and practices of flag statehood at large; additionally, it highlights the insights that can be yielded for International Relations by the examination of maritime governance using novel theoretical tools.

Characteristics analysis of intercontinental sea accidents using weighted association rule mining: Evidence from the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea

ABSTRACT This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social-emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and conscious “whole brain” approaches as part of a wider neuroliberal turn towards the behavioural, psychological and neurological sciences and considers their implications for UNESCO’s status as the “conscience of humanity.” It argues that “SEL for SDGs” operates as a “flag of convenience” hoisted by UNESCO to garner legitimacy in a global governance landscape increasingly shaped by private/corporate interests, new (tech-based) philanthropy, and neoliberal policies and funding infrastructures. It demonstrates how the privileging of biological and neuropsychological explanations for complex global problems is reconfiguring UNESCO’s global citizenship work towards a depoliticised, individualistic and neuroliberally-inflected “conscious human brain” response to complex societal challenges which forestalls political dialogue and undermines an appreciation of their material and economic determinants.

ABSTRACT Shipping lines avoid tax burdens and policy requirements by registering their self-owned vessels in flag of convenience (FOC) countries and establishing subsidiaries in those countries. However, since the international tax system has been increasingly focused on substance, coherence, and transparency, the anti-tax avoidance rules may have affected the choice of registry for shipping lines. Based on the 900-ship registry data of the top 25 liners across 26 flag states over the period 2008 to 2019, this paper uses conditional logit and mixed logit models to examine the effect of anti-tax avoidance rules on the choice of registry for shipping lines. In this regard, the results indicate that introducing country-by-country reporting requirements and a common reporting standard will reduce the probability of shipping lines registering to flag in those countries. On the other hand, after imposing anti-tax avoidance rules, liners are more willing to register flags in countries with higher tax rates. The results of a regional analysis show that better tax performance exerts an adverse effect on flag choice of European shipping lines; however, it has the opposite effect on Asian shipping lines.

Rallying around the “flag of convenience”: Merchant fleet flags and sanctions effectiveness

How to build an international maritime GHG (greenhouse gas) emission reduction cooperation mechanism is an important international issue at present.Firstly, we describe the current situation of maritime transport GHG emission reduction and analyze the problems that still exist in international maritime transport emission reduction from four aspects: political, economic, legal and technical.For example, geopolitical aggravation hinders the solution of the FOC (Flag of Convenience) issue; maritime emissions are not included in the carbon emission trading system; the synergy of maritime emission reduction principles under the IMO (International Maritime Organization) framework and the technical level of maritime emission reduction needs to be improved.The motivation and essence of the divergent international actions on maritime emission reduction are discussed.Finally, it is proposed to implement the "true linkage principle" to solve the problem of FOCs; to promote the development of regional carbon markets and link them to the international maritime carbon emission trading market economically; to implement the CBDR (the common but differentiated responsibilities) principle legally to promote the international emission reduction work in an orderly manner; and the technical innovation of ships and increase the technical support.

The choice of an appropriate ship flag for the existing fleet or new-building ships is one of important issues of shipowners. The main purpose of this paper is to construct an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model for the choice of ship flag. An application of the proposed AHP model to the case study on the ship flag choice of Taiwanese shipowners is shown in this article. The results show that the most important influential factors on the ship flag choice of Taiwanese shipowners are in order of the importance as follows: (a) crew cost, (b) incentive, (c) fiscal reason, (d) dual class expense, (e) tax-related expense, (f) PSC inspection, (g) freedom to employ foreign crew, (h) priority to transport, (i) ship registry process, (j) market consideration, (k) level of bureaucracy, and (l) law restrictions. The top four nations for Flag of Convenience (FOC) registry are in order of shipowner’s preferences as follows: (a) Panama, (b) Liberia, (c) Hong Kong, and (d) Singapore. The above findings can be a reference for the maritime departments of Taiwanese government transportation to help the maritime departments offer response strategies and policies for future development of national ship registration system.

With fatal injuries six times the rate of all US occupations, people who live and work at sea are part of one of the most dangerous occupations. Few ships have health care workers aboard despite many seafarers being at sea for months. While seafarers are guaranteed a right to health care through maritime labor laws and conventions, it is unclear whether or how they access these rights. Therefore, photo-ethnography was used to examine what health care access means for seafarers through the lens of structural violence. The study site was the vessel the seafarers worked and lived on, which docked in the Gulf of Mexico once-a-week, flies a flag of convenience, and travels in international waters. The photo-ethnography was implemented over a one-year period and included male Filipino seafarers who worked 9-month contracts at sea. The historical, structural, and political-economic production of injury, illness, and death were questioned to understand why migrant seafarers do not have de facto access to their de jure health rights. In this way, health prevention was analyzed through the discourse of power distribution instead of risk and disease. Results from the project reveal that seafarers routinely underreport adverse work and health conditions for fear of losing future work contracts. Adverse work experiences included dangerous vessels and routes as well as being encouraged to work with little sleep or through storms. Adverse health issues included severe to moderate injury and illness, which they concealed from management. Ultimately, it was revealed that political-economic systems are internalized and embodied among migrant workers who are employed under short-term contracts, leading to decreased healthcare-seeking behaviors and increased health disparities.

The article examines various types of registration of ships, identifying their differences and common features. The author analyzes the problems and peculiarities of registration under the flag of a particular country, as well as the responsibility and powers of that country with respect to ships under its jurisdiction. The author also discusses the concept of a flag of convenience, its positive and negative aspects, as well as the impact of such a flag on the work of seafarers and possible consequences of nonstandard situations. The article analyzes the global ship registration market and the main privileges for the country in which the vessel is registered. The situation with the registration of ships under the Ukrainian flag is considered in detail, and recommendations and privileges for expanding the fleet under this flag are provided. Finally, the importance of the flag for commercial vessels is highlighted, as they are considered the territory of the country under which they are registered and are subject to the jurisdiction of that country and its laws.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed additional weaknesses of the already troubling “flag of convenience” practices under international law; the passenger cruise industry was especially impacted. Most cruise ships under distress from the pandemic received little aid from their flag states, and many vessels were denied entry into ports of nonflag states (regardless of whether an outbreak had been documented onboard). States and vessels lacked clear guidance around their rights and responsibilities under the extraordinary circumstances, resulting in a less efficient response to a dangerous situation. This article reviews the current status of international law concerning port and flag state duties to distressed vessels, and suggests the creation of flag state medical liability to help clarify decision-making during future health crises.

One of the key elements of the critical theory of adjudication is the identification of an objective antagonism that is at stake behind a given court case. The identification of the antagonism allows to develop an axis, along which interpretive possibilities can be spread and arranged from those most favourable to social group A (e.g. workers) to that most favourable to social group B (e.g. businesses). The paper discusses the famous Laval–Viking case-law which was concerned with the fundamental rights of workers (right to strike and undertake collective action) and their relation to the economic freedoms of businesses, seeking to escape the high standards of worker protection in their own country either by changing the flag of a ship to a flag of convenience (Viking) or by importing cheap labour force from abroad, without guaranteeing the workers equal rights (Laval). Whereas the vast majority of scholars have interpreted the Viking–Laval jurisprudence as relating to the fundamental socio-economic antagonism opposing workers and businesses, the Slovenian scholar Damjan Kukovec has proposed an alternative reading. According to him, the real antagonism is ultimately between workers from the periphery (Central Europe, in casu Baltic countries) and workers from the centre (Western Europe, in casu Scandinavian countries). By introducing the spatial dimension to the political, Kukovec entirely changes the formulation of the underlying antagonism. The paper engages critically with Kukovec’s analysis and argues that the objective interest of Central European workers lies not in selling their labour at dumping prices, but gaining the same guarantees of social protection as existing in the West.

In principle, under Article 25 of the Korean Private International Law (hereunder, the KPIL), the parties to a seafarer's labor contract may choose the law governing the contract. However, the KPIL amends the principles of Article 25 for labor contracts in accordance with the need to protect the social and economically weak. In the case of labor contracts, even if the parties choose the applicable law, the protection given to workers cannot be deprived under the mandatory regulations of the country under the applicable law designated by Article 28, Paragraph 2 of the KPIL. Accordingly, it is expected that the provisions of the Labor Standards Act and the Seafarers Act related to the labor protection of seafarers, and the mandatory regulations of the Maritime Labor Convention will complement the principle of party autonomy. In addition, if the parties do not designate the law governing the contract, the contract shall be governed by the laws of the country most significantly related to the contract in accordance with Article 26 of Private International Law. If the parties do not choose the applicable law, however, the law governing the labor contract shall be governed by the laws of the state where workers routinely provide labor, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 26 of the KPIL. Also if a worker does not routinely provide labor within a country, the law of the country in which the employer employs the worker is the law governing the contract. Due to the peculiarity of the seafarer's labor contract, however, despite the provisions of Article 28 of the KPIL, there are questions of 'where is the country where workers routinely provide labor' and 'what is the employed office', with regard to the interpretation of Article 28 (2) of the KPIL. Considering the shipping practice comprehensively, the objective governing law of the seafarer labor contract should be regarded as the laws of nations where the location of the shipowner's headquarters or the location of the shipowner's business office. However, in spite of the objective governing law determination principle above, in order to faithfully implement the ideology of the private international law, it is necessary to comprehensively review whether or not the law of the ship owner's place of business is most closely related to the labor contract in each case. On the other hand, when determining the objective governing law of the seafarer's labor contract, if there is a lack of genuine relationship between the flag state of the ship and the seafarer's labor contract, and it is clear that the shipowner intends to use the poor working conditions of the country where the flag of convenience is located, the court shall make a decision in full consideration of the purpose of Article 8 of the KPIL. Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Korean Seafarers Act (hereunder, the KSA) stipulates that the Act applies exclusively to the labor contracts of seafarers aboard certain ships prescribed by the Act. However because if the KSA is exclusively applied to seafarer labor relations, there is a possibility of conflict of norms with respect to the application of the mandatory provisions of the Maritime Labor Convention as well as the principle of party autonomy stipulated in Article 25 of the KPIL may be violated, the abolition of Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the KSA or legislative improvement is necessary.

The international conventions for high seas had provided that each ship must have one flag only and must not change its flag during the voyage or for any reason. However, in the last years many ships have infringed this rule and had registered with other states that had allowed any foreign ships to register in their ports. These states are an open registry states, which are known as 'Flag of Convenience' states. This change of the flag during the voyage, which caused a lot of problems, was for a political and economic reasons either to make their own profit or to avoid their flag state fees. Notably, such phenomenon is considered as a maritime fraud, which will impact the maritime world and disseminate chaos on the high seas. For these reasons, this paper will highlight the duplication of the nationality for the ships issue and analyse the effects of this negative behaviour.

Psychologists and psychiatrists worldwide are expressing concerns regarding the growing prevalence of mental health problems and the incidence of suicide in young adults. The reasons are seen in the extremely high tempo of social changes, information pressure, and values evolution in the younger generations, which are exposed to growing inequalities, loneliness and lack of social support. Poverty, social isolation, consumerism, hedonism, and unrealistic expectations of the future generate in the vulnerable part of the young adults inevitable frustrations, which give way to depression, anxiety, addictions, and suicide. This creates additional risks for the situation on board ships, both military and merchant, and requires greater efforts during pre-admission selection and in the course of the service or voyages. Suicides in the Navy are better registered than in the cargo fleet and are lower than in the same age and gender groups from the general population, and usually lower than in other types of forces. Data on suicides in the civilian maritime sector are less conclusive, but suggest it as a growing problem, especially considering stress on board. Recent studies revealed quite a lot of mental health problems in the merchant fleet crews, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Among the reasons such factor as "flag of convenience" strategy that implies lower standards, recruiting of the less trained and lower-paid workforce, multinational and multilanguage rotating crews, higher workload and stress and insufficient level of the pre-employment medical examination are mentioned. Recent trends in the mental health of the youth demand higher awareness both in the military ships and in the merchant fleet. We consider that more education and training aimed at mental health problems identification and stress-resilience promotion are needed both for the military and civilian staff on board. Better education of the whole personnel and "healthy ship" approach (better recognition of the crew members' needs, attention to mental health problems, nutrition, physical activity, etc.) may be applied both for the Navy and merchant fleet.