The Industry Blind Spot that Lets Crew Suffering Escalate
•February 13, 2026
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Why It Matters
Seafarers are essential to 80% of world trade; their mistreatment jeopardizes safety, supply‑chain stability, and industry reputation.
Key Takeaways
- •Seafarers face chronic abuse under self‑regulation
- •Flag states, P&I clubs lack enforcement authority
- •Industry relies on cheap labor across weak‑law jurisdictions
- •No global seafarer union limits collective bargaining power
- •Strong inspections could curb exploitation, improve safety
Pulse Analysis
Seafaring remains the backbone of international commerce, moving more than 80 percent of global trade tonnage. Yet the industry’s reliance on self‑regulation has cultivated a hidden crisis: crew members endure long contracts, inadequate shore leave, and mental‑health strain with little recourse. Frank Coles, a veteran shipping consultant, argues that this systemic abuse is not a series of isolated incidents but a structural blind spot embedded in hiring practices that chase the lowest‑cost labor across jurisdictions with weak labour protections. The daily reality for many sailors is a cycle of exploitation that rarely reaches public scrutiny. Regulatory bodies such as flag states, classification societies, and P&I clubs draft the maritime safety framework, yet they lack the mandate or financial incentive to enforce it rigorously. The International Maritime Organization’s guidelines are largely advisory, leaving enforcement to national authorities that often prioritize commercial interests over crew welfare. This vacuum enables practices akin to modern‑day human trafficking, where crews are shifted between flags to exploit regulatory loopholes. Without a binding global union or collective bargaining mechanism, seafarers cannot pressure owners for better contracts, making the abuse cycle self‑sustaining. Breaking the impasse will require coordinated action from governments, industry groups, and the crews themselves. Expanding mandatory inspections, random audits of crewing agencies, and transparent reporting of shore‑leave violations could create immediate deterrents. Simultaneously, establishing an internationally recognised seafarer federation would give workers a unified voice in negotiations and legal disputes. When regulators enforce existing conventions and ship owners adopt humane employment standards, the ripple effect improves safety, reduces turnover, and stabilises supply‑chain reliability—benefits that resonate far beyond the decks of individual vessels.
The industry blind spot that lets crew suffering escalate
Shipping consultant Frank Coles on seafaring’s shame and how systemic abuse thrives under self‑regulation
Seafaring is as old as world trade. All through time it is the lifeblood of an industry that appears to be without conscience. We see the systematic abuse of a global essential workforce on a daily basis.
In the last few months, like the last few years and decades before that we read about abandonment of ships and crew. We hear about abuses of hiring, work‑rest hours and just about any other employment‑associated practice. Mental‑health issues in the seafaring profession are now raised every month. It is a constant plethora of reports on every angle of the seafaring career and none of it positive.
Read any maritime‑focused media and you will be aware of the crisis. You can log on to LinkedIn and industry‑linked people will shout from the rooftops about the situation. Sadly the outside world remains largely oblivious. The occasional press article or media report does not seem to move the dial.
The issues and challenges are not new, so why is this a continuing and growing problem?
Shipping is a selfish industry and the current world attitude of “everyman for himself” makes this more prevalent. Over the last 40 years the industry has systematically practiced human trafficking—jumping from one country to the next for a cheaper workforce, moving to a country where human rights and labour laws are weaker and where people are desperate for work. This creates a workforce without representation and without the teeth to create and demand change.
The regulators and authorities of the industry create the umbrella of rules and documents meant to provide a properly regulated work framework. This umbrella is full of holes; the abuse rains in. Those that create the framework have no authority or mandate to enforce the desired outcome.
Many owners and managers do care and do take care of their crew, but even the most dedicated will know the pressures of the industry create situations of abuse. Issues of shore leave are out of the control of the owners. Flag states, P&I clubs and class societies all lack the moral fibre to implement change that might be needed. They rely on their members for revenue and ship numbers. A self‑regulating industry is flawed in this day and age.
A simplistic broad‑brush commentary? It paints an accurate landscape of an industry that lacks the desire (or ability) to tackle this epidemic, the systematic abuse of a global workforce on a daily basis.
Change may only be possible in one of two ways. First, the workers demand change—leaving the sea is one way of sending the message. The continued jumping from nation to nation will probably stifle that method of change after all; we haven’t used Africa yet.
The workforce lacks a global union. The strangulation of world trade would bring change, but why does that even have to be an option?
Second, countries need to recognise the issue, enforce the regulations and treat seafarers as humans. How is that going to happen? Covid taught us the exact opposite. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has no mandate and most countries just leave it to the IMO. Countries are in many cases creating the problem, with poor rule of law and lack of shore leave being two examples.
Extensive enforcement of the current regulations would be a start. Extensive inspections, audits and policing of the crewing of ships would send a message. However, who is going to take charge and make it happen?
Meantime, we will continue to write about it. Seafarers will leave the sea and new crew‑supply chains will be found.
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