Cases of crew abandonment remain a very serious problem for seafarers worldwide, despite the fact that the world is now more aware of the problem. To depict the issue, Periplous created a map depicting every case of crew abandoment around the world.
Periplous used the ILO database on crew abandoment, supplemented by cases that have been reported in the media.
The map was created in September and shows hotspots for crew abandonment around the world.
Incidents of shipowners abandoning their ship and crews last saw a spike in 2017, but the number of incidents is now increasing again.
Commenting on the map, Matthew Ader, a member of the team said that despite efforts by local authorities to tackle crew abandoment, the map shows that the UAE is home to a massive and disproportionate number of abandonment cases – 12% of the global total.
As far as nationalities are concerned, Indian seafarers have suffered the greatest number of abandonment cases followed by their Ukrainian co-workers.
