Dark side of the shadow fleet: Seafarer abandonment

The crew of a product tanker anchored off the Indonesian island of Batam have been marooned on their vessel for months.

As they watch aircraft take off from nearby Changi Airport in Singapore, they are desperately waiting for the day they too can get on a plane and fly back home — with pay packets in hand.

The United Nations-backed International Labour Organization has designated the 21 seafarers stuck on board the 46,100-dwt Green Land (built 2002) as abandoned. Their wages have been unpaid since June.

The Green Land is one of the many tankers that have been accused by pressure group United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) as being part of the dark fleet that transports sanctioned crude oil.

And it stands as an example of an even darker side of this shadow fleet — that the seafarers employed on these ships are often left behind.

The Green Land is no stranger to the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which has deemed its crew as abandoned twice before — in June 2024 and June 2025.

The tanker has been owned by Marshall Islands-registered Port Land Shipping since August 2021.

Baltic Marine Services of the United Arab Emirates has been its manager since January 2024, but TradeWinds was unable to reach the company for comment.

The Green Land’s existence since being sold by a German KG (limited partnership) owner in November 2019 can best be described as nomadic.

According to the ILO, the vessel does not have any protection and indemnity cover and is also out of class.

The seafarers from India, Bangladesh and Ukraine stranded on board have been given many assurances by the authorities tasked with looking after their well-being.

Back in October, St Kitts and Nevis International Ship Registry told the crew it was very sorry about their situation, assuring them it was in close communication with the vessel’s representatives.

On 11 December, India’s directorate general of shipping told the ILO that it had “initiated multiple actions to expedite the repatriation and wage settlement of the affected seafarers”.

Seafarers from India make up most of the Green Land’s crew. Time will tell whether they make it home by the new year.

Meanwhile, the Green Land’s seafarers can do nothing but wait and watch those big aircraft from Singapore fly over their heads.

Their plight is being faced by many other seafarers who have found themselves working on dark fleet tankers around the world.

The ITF believes that most seafarers would not know they are joining a dark fleet vessel. They are not advertised as such by ship managers and their recruiters.

ILO cases

Of the 28 tankers involved in ongoing or disputed seafarer abandonment cases on the ILO database, eight are either sanctioned or have been accused by UANI as being part of the dark fleet.

The ITF says it is very hard to know what the real seafarer abandonment situation is for the dark fleet. It can only respond when it has been alerted to a problem by the seafarers themselves.

The ITF told TradeWinds that of about 400 vessels reported abandoned this year, 16 cases involved tankers.

Of these, four were flying false flags, five were unknown in terms of flag, two were Iranian-flagged and two were Gambian-flagged, while single cases were logged for tankers flying the flags of Tanzania, Eswatini and Russia.

The ITF believes there are not as many abandonments on dark fleet ships as might be expected, because operators do not want to draw attention to their ships.

But other observers claim the problem is becoming worse as an increasing number of ships are sanctioned and flag states throw them off their registers.

When shipowners and vessels are sanctioned, access to international banking systems is cut off. The removal of the flag state following a vessel’s sanctioning leaves crews stranded, with minimal support or accountability from the shipowner.

UANI senior adviser Charlie Brown believes that crews on dark fleet tankers idling far offshore are underreporting abandonment cases due to limited contact with the outside world.

Sanctioned ships that are unable to trade often hide out in anchorages outside of any territorial waters.

They are frequently joined by unsanctioned dark tankers whose owners, perhaps anticipating some action, want to keep a low profile while they attempt to launder their vessel by changing its name, flag, registered owner and manager.

The Gulf of Oman and the South China Sea off Malaysia are popular places to hide a tanker. The seas are shallow, allowing ships to anchor far offshore in international waters out of sight or reach of port authorities and seafarer welfare organisations.

Resolving abandonment cases becomes extremely difficult when US sanctions are applied, because any financial transactions — including payments to crew — typically require permission from the US Treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Textbook case

The difficulties faced by organisations assisting abandoned seafarers on dark fleet tankers are best shown by the case involving the 160,000-dwt tanker Olym (built 2001).

The crude carrier, which was sanctioned by the US under the name Olympics, was listed by the International Maritime Organization as abandoned on 1 August 2024 after its 25-strong crew complained that months of wages were outstanding.

S&P Global data shows the vessel, which was at Shahid Rajaee Port in Bandar Abbas, Iran, at the time, is owned and operated by Vishnu Inc, a Marshall Islands-registered company with its address registered as a post office box in the Indian town of Jagdishpur.

TradeWinds was unable to reach the company at its listed phone number.

Crew comments in ILO files suggested a Dubai company told them they would only receive wages and repatriation after completing their contracts.

Neither Vishnu nor the ship’s sanctioned P&I provider, Ascent General Insurance, responded to initial ILO requests to rectify the situation.

Guyana, the Olym’s declared flag state, confirmed that the ship was falsely flying the Guyanese flag and the certificates on board were fraudulent.

In March, the crew received a partial payment for wages up to October 2024.

Shortly after, the Port and Maritime Organization of Iran sent notice that the vessel was not physically present in Shahid Rajaee Port, nor in the waters under the jurisdiction of Hormozgan province.

What happened to the Olym and its crew after that remains a mystery.

According to MarineTraffic data, the vessel’s location transponder last sent out a transmission on 6 November showing it idling off Port Sudan with “to be order” stated as its destination. TradeWinds was unable to ascertain whether this was a genuine or spoofed transmission.

The ILO has changed the designation of the Olym’s case to disputed.(Copyright)

source : tradewindsnews