Seafarer Abandonment: What to Do If You’re Owed Wages and Stuck Aboard

Last updated: August 2026

“The money is coming. Just hold on a little longer.”

If you’ve been told that for weeks while your wages don’t arrive and your contract quietly runs past its end date, you are not being difficult by worrying. You may be looking at an abandonment — and there is a specific system, with your name on it, that exists to get you paid and get you home.

This guide is for merchant and commercial crew (and yacht crew) who haven’t been paid, can’t get off, and keep being asked to wait. It covers what “abandonment” actually means in law, what you’re owed, and the steps to take in the first days — before you sign anything you’ll regret.

What “abandonment” actually means

Abandonment isn’t just a feeling of being forgotten. Under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC 2006, Standard A2.5.2), you are legally deemed abandoned when the shipowner does any one of the following:

fails to cover the cost of your repatriation,
or leaves you without the necessary maintenance and support (food, water, fuel, medical care),
or otherwise unilaterally severs ties with you — including failing to pay your contractual wages for at least two months.

Read that last line again. Two months of unpaid wages, on its own, can meet the legal definition. You don’t have to wait until the food runs out.

A recent example of how bad it gets

In May 2026, a seafarer aboard the general cargo ship Lady Mina, held in the Port of Las Palmas, contacted an ITF inspector. His contract had expired and he’d been on board more than 13 months — well past the roughly 11-month ceiling on continuous service the MLC allows before you’re entitled to repatriation. He had asked to go home again and again. Nothing happened.

By the time inspectors finished, six crew were owed a combined USD 68,000. The vessel was detained by the Spanish maritime authority, it was missing required certificates, and the financial-security paperwork that was supposed to protect the crew in exactly this situation appeared to be forged.

That case is the system failing. But it’s also the system working: an inspector, a port state that detained the ship, and a legal framework that said the crew were owed money and a flight home. The crew who get their money are almost always the ones who trigger that machinery early and keep records.

The financial security that’s meant to protect you

Since 2017, ships covered by the MLC must carry — and display on board — a certificate confirming that insurance or other financial security is in place for abandonment. It’s usually issued by a P&I club or similar provider.

If you’re abandoned, that security is required to cover:

up to four months of your outstanding wages and other entitlements,
the cost of your repatriation, and
your essential needs until you get home — food, accommodation, medical care, and so on.

There is often a physical certificate posted somewhere on board with a provider name and contact details on it. Photograph it. That provider is one of the people you or your representative can claim against directly.

One caution from Lady Mina: a certificate existing is not the same as cover being real. Theirs looked legitimate and wasn’t. So don’t let “there’s a certificate on the noticeboard” be the end of your checking — it’s the start of it.

The first days: what to do, in order

1. Contact an ITF inspector. This is usually the fastest route to real help, and it’s free. ITF inspectors deal with abandonment, unpaid wages, and repatriation constantly, and they can act in the port you’re sitting in. If you’re covered by an ITF or union collective agreement, say so.

2. Tell the flag state and the port state. The flag state (the country whose flag the ship flies) and the port state control authority where you’re berthed both have power here — port state control detained Lady Mina. A stranded, unpaid crew is grounds for inspection.

3. Call a seafarers’ welfare line. ISWAN’s SeafarerHelp, Mission to Seafarers, Stella Maris and the Sailors’ Society run free, confidential, multilingual helplines and have people in most major ports. They can get food, sim cards, and a friendly face to you fast, and they know the local process.

4. Start a record, today. Keep a dated log: when you were last paid, what you’re owed, every promise made and broken, names, and photos of the financial-security certificate and your contract. This log is what turns “I feel cheated” into “I am owed X, here is the evidence.”

5. Preserve your documents. Your seafarer employment agreement, wage account, discharge book, and any collective agreement. If your papers are being held, note that too — it can itself be a violation.

What not to do

Don’t sign anything you don’t understand — especially a document that waives claims, acknowledges a lower figure than you’re owed, or “settles” in exchange for a flight home. Repatriation is your right; you should not have to trade your unpaid wages for it.
Don’t quietly accept a “new” contract backdated or reworded to erase the time you’ve already served.
Don’t wait for the owner’s next promise before making the calls above. Every week of silence is evidence, not a reason to hold off.

Why this is rarely as simple as it sounds

Here’s the hard part. Whether you actually recover your money — and how fast — depends on the flag state, the governing law of your contract, who your legal employer really is (often a manning agency or a company in a third country, not the name on the hull), whether the financial-security provider is genuine, and where the ship physically sits. Change any one of those and the path changes.

That’s why general advice — “call the ITF, keep records, you’re entitled to your wages” — is true but incomplete. It tells you the principle. It doesn’t tell you what your contract, on your flag, with your employer, actually entitles you to, or which of your entitlements fall inside that four-month financial-security cap and which you’ll have to pursue separately. Working that out is a documents exercise, and it’s usually the difference between a partial payout and a full one.

Where CrewRights fits

Get yourself safe first: the ITF inspector, the flag and port state, the welfare helpline. Those are the emergency layer, and they’re free — use them.

CrewRights is the layer that comes alongside them. Once the immediate crisis is moving, we help you work out exactly what you’re owed and put it into a clean, documented claim built from your own contract and wage records — the version that holds up when a financial-security provider or an owner starts negotiating down. Our Pay & Leave Review (€249) goes through your agreement and your pay to establish the real figure and the entitlements behind it. If you need to put a firm, structured demand in writing, the Communication Pack (€149) turns your documents into a calm, evidenced message.

We are pre-legal, not a law firm — the work that sits before lawyers, and alongside your union, not instead of either.

In short

Two months of unpaid wages can legally count as abandonment.
You don’t have to wait it out.
The MLC financial security should cover up to four months’ wages, your repatriation, and your essential needs — but check the cover is real, don’t just note the certificate.
Act in order: ITF inspector, flag and port state, welfare helpline, and start a dated record today.
Never trade your unpaid wages for a flight home, and never sign what you don’t understand.
What you actually recover depends on your flag, your contract, and your real employer — which is exactly why documenting your position properly is worth doing well.

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