Up to a thousand ships flagged to the Cook Islands, Palau, Sierra Leone, and Togo will be targeted for safety, maintenance and seafarer welfare inspections across the Mediterranean Sea in the coming eight weeks by an army of inspectors from the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), seafarers' unions and port authorities.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) says Australia is facing economic carnage from clogged ports as a result of rapidly worsening crew change crisis around its coasts, as the crews of two further ships in Western Australia and Victoria refused to keep sailing today in bids for repatriation.
Ten seafarers from Aframax oil tanker Wind (IMO: 9252967) have been freed from slave-like conditions only after the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) demanded their release.
The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has today released its figures for the numbers of vessels abandoned in 2023 - which show a worrying increase on figures from the previous year.