366 foreign-flagged ships now cannot hire Indian seafarers, unless...: DG Shipping issues new order

As many as 366 foreign-flagged vessels have been prohibited by the Directorate General of Shipping (DG Shipping) from hiring Indian seafarers over allegations of abandonment.

Among the 366 vessels, 278 were put under the “restricted” category, while the remaining 88 were “blacklisted”.

The new DG Shipping order aims to reduce the likelihood of Indian sailors being abandoned by various means—by withholding wages, refusing compensation to their families in death/missing cases, subjecting them to undue hardships, and lack of assistance in repatriation.

It added that all of these all of which are violations of national maritime regulations and international obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006.

In the new order to both Indian seafarers and Recruitment and Placement Service Licence (RPSL) companies, the shipping regulator also explained that it had already issued show cause notices to a number of RPSL companies "for their involvement in such cases".

"RPSL companies are now prohibited from deploying Indian seafarers onboard such vessels unless strict compliance requirements are met," DG Shipping wrote in an X post on Thursday.

The maritime regulator also mandated that RPSL companies follow certain guidelines to verify whether already-deployed Indian sailors were on ships violating its order, as well as to prevent future violations:

1) The engagement of seafarers on any one vessel (Indian or foreign-flagged) will be restricted to a maximum of two authorised RPSL companies only.

2) All RPSL companies have to verify the IMO number of vessels from the ILO/IMO Joint Database on the Abandonment of Seafarers before adding such ships to their company profile or deploying Indian seafarers onboard.

3) In case any vessel is found in the above database, the RPSL company is mandated not to engage, recruit, or place Indian seafarers onboard such vessels without prior approval of DG Shipping.

4) The DG Shipping restrictions on vessel engagements will continue based on the IMO numbers, and name changes will not result in the removal of vessels from the restricted list.

However, the maritime regulator notified that if the vessel is purchased by another owner is free from any encumbrance, the new owner could seek approval from it for the removal of the vessel from the restricted list.

5) The DG Shipping's list of restricted vessels will be reviewed periodically.