From 1 September to 30 November 2024, the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region (Tokyo MoU) carried out a Concentrated Inspection Campaign (CIC), jointly with the Paris MoU, focusing on Crew Wages and Seafarer Employment Agreements in accordance with the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006).
The campaign included relevant questions pertaining to financial security provisions introduced under the 2014 amendments to the MLC, 2006. The campaign also involved the member Authorities of the Tokyo MOU that have ratified the MLC, 2006. The campaign shows the following preliminary results.
The campaign in numbers
Over the course of the CIC period, involving all types of ships, a total of 8,134 inspections were carried out. Of these inspections, 6,580 (80.89%) inspections were performed using the CIC questionnaire and a ship was subjected to only one CIC inspection during the campaign period.
During the period, 297 ships were detained in total (3.65% detention rate). Of which, 20 detentions were the result of inspections with CIC questionnaires, which were detained as a direct result of the CIC concerning deficiencies related to crew wages and seafarer employment agreement under the MLC, 2006, reflecting a CIC topic related detention rate of 0.3% (7% of all detentions).
Key deficiencies
The most common deficiencies (and deficiencies that resulted in a detention) found during the campaign were associated with:
- the absence of signed Seafarer Employment Agreements (SEA) (16% of CIC-related deficiencies issued); and
- seafarer unable to access information regarding their employment conditions on board (28% of CIC-related deficiencies issued).
During the campaign, vessels registered under the flags of 84 different States were inspected under the CIC scope. The greatest number of CIC inspections were carried out on ships flying the flags of Panama with 1,622 inspections (25.0%), Liberia with 840 inspections (13%) and the Marshall Islands with 587 inspections (9%).
The detained ships displaying more than 1 CIC-related detention in the region were flagged by Panama, Liberia, Mongolia and Gambia.
Further analysis of the results of the campaign will be considered by the Port State Control Committee meeting scheduled in October 2025.
