A new tool is being launched today, coinciding with the day of the Seafarer, to help the maritime industry tackle recruitment fees being charged to seafarers, a widespread practice that is illegal under the Maritime Labour Convention.
The tool is backed by over 30 major global shipowners, ship operators, charterers and container cargo owners, insurers and investors – including Odfjell, CMA CGM, NYK Ship Management, Wilhelmsen Ship Management, IMC Ship Management, Anglo American, Louis Dreyfus Company, Mercuria, Inter IKEA Group, Gard, South32 and many others. It is also supported by Mission to Seafarers, MACN, ISWAN, Rafto Foundation, Sustainable Shipping Initiative, shipping associations, ITF and other unions and civil society organisations.
Created by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and TURTLE, the toolkit provides a simple five-phase approach to risk management and compliance to help companies identify and mitigate recruitment fee risks in their operations and supply chains. The phases move from foundational controls to active oversight, supported by collective action throughout.
Francesca Fairbairn, who leads IHRB’s work on shipping, said: “No worker should face the scourge of recruitment fees. Yet our research shows these illegal fees are endemic in shipping, putting a heavy burden on the seafarers who transport our goods and keep 90% of the world’s trading running. Further, the financial stress of the debt they face as a result of fees can lead to unsafe working conditions on board ships. Seafarers deserve better.”
“Part of the problem is knowing if there are fees being paid by crew up the chain, and many seafarers are unaware that these fees are illegal. We hope this simple tool will equip the maritime industry to address fees in their systems, and ideally prevent them. The toolkit is designed to be used as a living compliance instrument, not a one-time audit.”
Isabelle Rickmers, the CEO and founder of TURTLE, said: “You cannot solve a talent shortage with an industry that charges people to enter it. Illegal recruitment fees do more than break the law, they poison the very entry point our industry most needs to protect. When a newcomer’s first experience is exploitation, we lose them before they begin, along with everyone they would have brought in behind them. That is why this concerns all of us, and why TURTLE is proud to stand with IHRB and the Action Group on Seafarer Recruitment Fees behind a toolkit that gives companies a practical way to act.”
The toolkit has been created as a means for shipping companies to take action following IHRB and TURTLE’s research findings into illegal recruitment fees, which showed that almost a third (31%) of seafarers have been asked to pay a recruitment fee to secure a job onboard a merchant vessel. Of the seafarers surveyed in their 2024 study, almost half of those who were charged fees paid between $500 – $5,000, with some seafarers reporting being charged more than $10,000. 74% of those asked to pay a fee did so, in part due to a lack of awareness that the practice is illegal. The resulting levels of debt push many seafarers towards modern slavery conditions and are linked to unsafe conditions aboard ships, according to researchers. IHRB, TURTLE, and others like the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network are raising awareness among seafarers to curb payment of illegal fees.
Diptesh Chohan
