The global maritime industry is facing a humanitarian and ethical challenge. With over 20,000 seafarers currently stranded due to escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the immediate focus is clear: supporting their right to refuse entry to a war zone and ensuring they get home safely. This conflict has brutally exposed an uncomfortable reality about the lack of freedom of movement for our essential crews.
The struggles of seafarers are often invisible, which is why business leaders across the sector must urgently examine their internal processes to raise the profile of these vital workers, explains Peter Rouch, Secretary General of The Mission to Seafarers (in this interview with Intent before the outbreak of violence in West Asia). While progress in seafarer welfare is happening, it remains uneven. Many shipping companies, corporates, insurers, and brokers are stepping up, prioritising welfare and partnering with key agencies like the Mission to Seafarers to deliver crucial financial support and welfare programmes.
Shipping Companies must directly improve welfare by providing proper rest schedules, ensuring internet connectivity, offering quality food, prioritising mental health, conducting good medical checks, and offering excellent training.
The Wider Maritime Ecology (including corporate consumers of shipping services) must consider their procurement processes and ask whether the goods they purchase have been ethically transported. Simply asking this question is a powerful step to putting seafarer safety firmly on the agenda.
Ultimately, seafarers have a fundamental legal right to a safe working environment. This includes protection from extreme security risks through fatigue management, enhanced watchkeeping, mental health welfare support, regular communication with families, and access to free medical care onboard or ashore. We need robust complaint and enforcement mechanisms if those rights are breached.
The question for true industry leadership is: What are you doing to ensure a baseline standard of safety and seafarer rights?