COVID-19 abandonment cluster 2020-2022 (aggregate)
2020-2022 · global · status: regime summary
- Opened
- 2020-03-01
- Closed
- 2022-06-01
- Port
- global
- Shipowner
- multiple
- Insurer named on DMLC
- multiple
- Seafarers affected
- aggregate
- Nationalities
- MULTI
Summary
COVID-19 border closures created the largest concentrated abandonment cluster since MLC A2.5.2 entry-into-force in 2017. IMO/ILO Joint Database records: 85 new cases in 2020, 94 in 2021, 66 in 2022 — a total of 245 in the pandemic peak-window vs. ~40 baseline year prior. Root causes: (a) crew-change collapse leaving crew stranded on board past-contract with no repatriation route, (b) shipping-market downturn in early 2020 driving smaller-operator insolvency, (c) MLC A2.5.2 insurer response overwhelmed on multiple simultaneous claims. The Neptune Declaration (September 2020) — signed by ~600 shipping companies + industry bodies — committed to crew-change resumption and drove partial recovery. Aggregate lesson: pandemic-scale disruption tests A2.5.2 as a scalable framework in ways the 2017 regime designers did not anticipate.
Outcome for crew
aggregate ~245 cases; median resolution time increased from ~4 months pre-pandemic to ~9 months during peak.
Source
Resolution / documentation via: IMO/ILO Joint Database + Neptune Declaration + ITF campaigns
Related rights + resources
- · Abandonment rights (MLC A2.5.2) — the regulatory framework this case is governed by
- · Unpaid wages
- · MLC 2006 financial-security providers directory
- · International Group P&I Clubs