London: Indians are the most abandoned nationality of seafarers for the second consecutive year as 1,125 cases of abandonment were logged at the end of 2025, a UK-headquartered global union of transport workers has found.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) said that abandonment worldwide hit record levels last year as it released new data showing 6,223 seafarers abandoned across 410 ships.
The ITF welcomed the Indian government’s “blacklisting” measures to protect its seafarers from ships as a result of repeat abandonments and other bad practices.
“It’s nothing short of a disgrace that, yet again, we are seeing record numbers of seafarers abandoned by unscrupulous ship owners,” said David Heindel, Chair of the ITF Seafarers’ Section.
“Every day, all around the world, seafarers face horrific violations of their human and labour rights, all so that bottom-feeding companies can make a quick buck at their expense.
“It’s very clear that this is a systemic issue in the industry – and that means we need the entire industry to come together with seafarers and their unions to say, ‘enough is enough’, and take action together to end this crisis,” he said.
Seafarer abandonment is defined by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), headquartered in London, under three criteria: failing to cover the cost of a seafarer’s repatriation; leaving a seafarer without necessary maintenance and support; unilaterally severing ties with a seafarer, including failure to pay contractual wages for a period of at least two months.
According to the ITF analysis, the worst region for abandonment was the Middle East, followed by Europe. The two countries where most ship abandons took place and the highest number of vessels on which abandonments occurred were Türkiye (61) and the United Arab Emirates (54) – both of which were found to have significantly higher abandonments than any other country.
The ITF data, to be submitted in a report to the IMO ahead of its discussion at a legal committee meeting later this year, also shows that seafarers were owed a total of 25.8 million dollars in 2025 as a consequence of the abandonments. From this total, the ITF said it has recovered and returned 16.5 million dollars to seafarers.
“In 2025, we’ve yet again seen the worst year on record for seafarer abandonment. But this isn’t just a story about numbers, these are the people – the workers – who keep our economy moving forward being forced into absolutely desperate situations, far from home and often without any clear resolution in sight,” said ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton.
“As we’ve long said, the solutions to abandonment lie in accountability in the shipping industry ensuring that ship owners can’t dodge their responsibilities. The International Maritime Organisation must be given more power to play a coordinating role in eradicating abandonment,” he said.
The union has been campaigning against the misuse of the ‘Flags of Convenience’ (FOC) system. An FOC vessel is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of ownership, at the same time adopting the regulations set down by that flag.
FOC vessels feature prominently in its list of abandonments, with 82 per cent of the total abandoned vessels in 2025 found to be flying FOCs. The ITF estimates that around 30 per cent of the entire 1,00,000-strong global fleet of merchant vessels fly FOCs.
