Two thirds of tanker abandonments involve shadow fleet vessels
THE majority of seafarers abandoned on tankers in 2025 were abandoned on shadow fleet* vessels, Lloyd’s List Intelligence data reveals.
Of the 46 cases of seafarer abandonment on tankers and LPG carriers of more than 5,000 dwt recorded by the International Transport Workers’ Federation and International Labour Organization in 2025, 27 were on board vessels in Lloyd’s List Intelligence’s shadow fleet watchlists**. Two vessels had two cases of abandonment in 2025.
That’s 66% of cases, up from 50% recorded between January 2023 and September 2024.
For context, shadow fleet*** vessels make up around 20% of the world’s tanker fleet and 7.5% of the LPG carrier fleet, meaning it has a significantly disproportionate role in seafarer abandonment. Broken down, shadow LPG vessels accounted for all LPG vessel abandonments above 5,000 dwt (there was one non-shadow fleet LPG carrier of 3,000 dwt); tankers accounted for 60%.
Those statistics are part of a wider picture of skyrocketing abandonment which once again makes for grim reading.
ITF data shows that 6,223 seafarers were abandoned across 410 ships in 2025, which marks the sixth year in a row abandonment has increased.
Crew were abandoned on 410 vessels, up from 312 in 2024 and 132 in 2023. Before 2024, increases were relatively modest, before they exploded in 2024. Last year’s increase of 31% may seem small in comparison to 2024’s 136%, but it still represents an additional 100 cases of abandonment.
In total, the ITF estimates that $25.8m was owed to seafarers in unpaid wages last year, of which the federation was able to recover $16.5m.
Chair of the ITF Seafarers’ Section said it was “nothing short of a disgrace that, yet again, we are seeing record numbers of seafarers abandoned by unscrupulous shipowners”.
“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.
A seafarer is considered abandoned by the Maritime Labour Convention when the shipowner fails to cover repatriation costs, leaves the seafarer without support or maintenance, or has severed ties with the seafarer, including a failure to pay wages for two months.
Under the amended MLC, flag states must ensure that a financial security system is in place for ships flying their flag to cover wages, food and other supplies, as well as the cost of repatriation.
They must also “facilitate the prompt repatriation of seafarers” when they are deemed abandoned under the MLC.
The flag states most represented in the ITF’s figures have not varied hugely from last year.
Panama (68) keeps its unwanted place at the top of the list, though it is among the largest registries in the world.
Tanzania (41), St Kitts and Nevis (40) and Comoros (34) make up three of the other top five, with 46 cases occurring on board vessels with an unknown or false flag.
St Kitts and Nevis is the only newcomer to that top five list, with abandonments on vessels flying its flag increasing by 150% in 2025.
In terms of nationality, India had the most abandoned seafarers with 1,125, followed by the Philippines (539), Syria (309), Indonesia (274) and Ukraine (248).
The ITF wants flag states to be compelled to log a ship’s beneficial owner and list contact details as a pre-condition of registration in a bid to reverse the increase.
It also wants flag states to follow the lead of India’s Directorate General of Shipping, which identified 86 vessels linked to abandonment cases, port detentions and the “non-availability of owners”.
Those vessels were “blacklisted” by the DG and Indian companies are banned from deploying Indian seafarers on them.
* Shadow Fleet and shadow LPG fleet boilers
** ITF’s available database currently does not list all the 410 abandonments reported in 2025. Lloyd’s List supplemented tanker abandonment data from the ITF database with the data available in the ILO’s database.
*** Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as being part of the Shadow Fleet if it engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices indicating that it is involved in the facilitation of sanctioned oil cargoes from Iran, Russia or Venezuela. Or it is sanctioned for participation in sanctioned oil trades or is sanctioned for links to a company that is sanctioned for facilitating the export of sanctioned oil. Or it participates in a cargo delivery where at some point over the course of the delivery one party in the chain engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices.
Seasearcher subscribers can activate the Shadow Fleet list by clicking the link above.
Content Original Link:
" target="_blank">
