The illegal practice of charging seafarers recruitment fees to secure work is widespread but goes mostly unreported, a new study shows.
More than two-thirds of seafarers who said they experienced illegal or unethical violations of their workers’ rights were either charged recruitment fees or were victims of fake job offers after making advance payments.
However, the majority of seafarers (71%) did not report the abuse, in most cases because they did not know where or how to report it.
That is the main conclusion of research published by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and the Sustainable Shipping Initiative.
The survey comprised close to 5,000 seafarers between September 2022 and February 2023. It was conducted by German digital recruitment firm Turtle in conjunction with the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN).
Anecdotal findings from individual seafarers speaking on condition of anonymity were damning.
“In India, there are no jobs for seafarers who don’t give a bribe — only money or help from relatives will get you on board,” one Indian respondent said.
“I have not seen a single company that does not deceive sailors or extort their money from them,” a seafarer from Lithuania said.
The findings have led to calls for the shipping industry and governments to tackle the issue of recruitment fees and minimise the risk of forced labour.
To rid the industry of illegal recruitment fees, the research findings point to important steps and recommendations:
● Shipping companies need to ensure that seafarers employed on board their ships have not been charged recruitment fees to secure their work contracts.
● Charterers, commodity companies, traders, and container cargo owners must carry out human rights due diligence in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights across their value chains.
● As the payment of recruitment fees is prohibited under the Maritime Labour Convention, port state authorities must investigate any reports of the charging of recruitment fees.
● Home states (where recruitment agencies are based) enact and enforce penalties where recruitment agencies charge fees for jobs.
● Much greater awareness is needed of the illegality of the charging of recruitment fees, among seafarers, national authorities, ship operators and cargo owners.
● Effective mechanisms are needed to penalise offending agencies and for remedy for seafarers who have paid illegal recruitment fees, including possibly, reimbursement by employers of fees already paid.
● Seafarers need to know how and where to report such practices.
Job scams
Frances House, senior advisor for the IHRB, said: “No worker should have to pay for their own job.
“But the reality remains that far too many seafarers continue to confront the illegal practice of recruitment fees.
“With 90% of world trade carried by sea, there is almost no company immune from needing to carry out their own due diligence on the issue of recruitment fees — from the shipping industry itself to commodity companies and high-street brands.
“This research exposes just how prolific recruitment fees are for seafarers — the time has come to end this illegal practice, and we will continue to work to ensure respect for the rights of seafarers everywhere.”
Mark Dickinson, general secretary of seafarer union Nautilus International, said: “Recruitment fraud and job scams are outrageous practices that can leave seafarers jobless and/or in serious debt.
“The charging of recruitment fees to seafarers is expressly prohibited under the Maritime Labour Convention — if it is as widespread as this research indicates, then governments and the shipping industry must take urgent and determined action to stamp out this illegal practice.”
The MACN said its efforts to deepen support for seafarers will increase in the coming years.
