The Club recently undertook an analysis of complaints concerning seafarers who have deserted their ships in the past ten years. While these types of complaints are not common and are not particularly expensive, they can disrupt a vessel’s operation and take management time to remedy. In some cases, the deserter will reappear soon after it disappears, in others it has been missing for a considerable period of time.

The ranks of those who desert a ship are many and varied, including cadets, crew members and officers from all departments, and although it is unusual for senior officers to leave a ship under these circumstances, in one case, a chief engineer deserted. The only discernible pattern is that catering staff, chefs, cooks, stewards and messboys predominate over other departments in Club statistics, with chefs and cooks in particular being regularly present in cases of deserters. .

Although, statistically, due to the unknown makeup of nationalities serving on entered vessels at any given time, it is impossible to say whether one nationality or another is more likely to desert an entered vessel, a review of our claim files showed that the Vietnamese, Turkish, Chinese and Cuban sailors predominate.

Certain countries are preponderant in relation to where we experience cases of desertion, with Canada, South Korea and Australia being popular destinations, followed by the United States and Spain. There are also a handful of trends where seafarer nationality predominates in cases of desertion in some countries:

• Chinese and Vietnamese sailors desert in Australia
• Turkish and Cuban sailors desert in Canada
• Chinese and Vietnamese sailors desert South Korea

While the number of such cases encountered in any given year can vary widely, the overall trend, when correlated with the growth in the Club’s entered tonnage over the period, is slowly declining:

The circumstances surrounding cases of desertion are many and varied. Here are some examples from the Club files:

• An oil tanker said he needed medical attention while the ship was docked in Canada. Arrangements were made to take the sailor to the doctors, but once ashore he disappeared. A few days later, a second sailor asked to be repatriated with all his pay, failing which he threatened to disappear too. He was escorted to the airport by security officers until he was picked up by the airline, at which time he applied for asylum.
• An AB to be repatriated at the end of his trip from a port in Greece requested to go to the toilet before being taken to the airport. He never returned from the bathroom, and although his colleagues searched for him, they found no trace.
• An AB requested a cash advance of $ 800 and his passport from the captain so that he could transfer money to his home while ashore in the United States, but he never returned to the ship.
• In a South Korean port, the cook was denied a shore pass by authorities because he had entered the country illegally before. While his teammates slept, he stole a colleague’s pass and disappeared to the ground.
• In Canada, five crew members were repatriated at the end of their voyage. The cook first checked in for their flight home and then said he was going to smoke outside the terminal. He never got to the gate to board the plane.
• In an Australian port, three deck crew packed their belongings and surreptitiously left the ship. They were eventually arrested by local authorities and deported to Turkey.

A number of cases have occurred when all seafarers have been placed ashore while their vessel is being fumigated.

Sometimes the seafarer will be apprehended by the authorities or occasionally he will report to the officer’s office, and in such situations he will either be returned to the ship or deported. In a number of cases, the seafarer concerned has applied for asylum. Often they disappear and nothing more on the matter is heard by the Club.

It is difficult to identify the circumstances which could lead to the desertion of a seafarer, but when seafarers express dissatisfaction with their work, or make an early request for repatriation and / or have family or spouses in a stopover country, there may well be a risk, especially if they apply for their passport as they would need it as an ID when on land, for example to transfer money or to buy a SIM card. However, in many cases the sailor did not take his passport or shore pass when he deserted a ship. Needless to say, if a sailor is determined to enter a particular country, it will be difficult to prevent such an event.

Members needing further guidance should contact Loss Prevention.
Source: West of England