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How Oil Sanctions’ Shadow Fleet Can Put Indian Seafarers at Risk

Opaque oil-shipping networks can put some Indian seafarers at risk of deceptive recruitment, unpaid wages, unsafe conditions, or abandonment. Here is what the 2025 reporting and IMO guidance establish.
From TheFinanceBase Team4 min to read
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Oil trade involving sanctioned supplies has helped create demand for vessels operating through opaque ownership and deceptive shipping practices. A Thomson Reuters Foundation report published on 24 August 2025 describes Indian seafarers recruited for some such work who allegedly faced misleading job terms, unpaid wages, dangerous conditions, or abandonment. Those accounts point to risks for vulnerable workers—not proof that every shadow-fleet ship or employer exploits its crew, or that crew members automatically know about or participate in unlawful trade.

What does “shadow fleet” mean?

“Shadow fleet” and “dark fleet” are common labels for ships linked to opaque ownership or deceptive shipping practices. In the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 24 August 2025 report, the terms refer to vessels involved in moving oil subject to sanctions. There is no single boundary or universally accepted count: sources can apply different definitions, and not every vessel described as part of a shadow fleet necessarily carries sanctioned oil.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has raised concerns about ships that evade safety or environmental rules, avoid insurance costs, or engage in other unlawful activity. The IMO does not impose sanctions itself; it follows sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council. Sanctions may also be imposed by individual governments, so a vessel’s legal status depends on the relevant authority and the specific measure.

How can sanctions-related oil trade affect seafarers?

When owners or operators seek to move oil through opaque networks, the reporting says some crew members may be hired into work whose nature, pay, or destination was not made clear to them. The Thomson Reuters Foundation report describes alleged wage withholding, dangerous working conditions, weak recruitment oversight, and abandonment among the risks faced by Indian seafarers recruited for some of these jobs.

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These are reported findings and allegations, not evidence about every vessel, recruiter, or employer. A seafarer’s presence aboard a vessel carrying oil subject to sanctions also does not, by itself, establish that the worker knew the cargo’s origin or committed an offense. Responsibility and culpability depend on evidence about the individual’s knowledge and role, as well as the conduct of the owners and operators.

The report also notes that Indian authorities did not respond to the allegations it raised. That should not be read as a finding about the government’s response to any particular case beyond what the report states.

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What counts as seafarer abandonment?

Abandonment is more than a delayed crew change. The IMO describes it in terms of failures such as not repatriating seafarers, failing to pay their wages, or leaving them without basic necessities. The circumstances matter: a delay alone is not necessarily a formally reported abandonment case.

Reported cases have risen

The joint IMO/International Labour Organization (ILO) database recorded 310 new seafarer-abandonment cases in 2024, compared with 142 in 2023. The IMO reported those figures on 4 April 2025 and said 63 additional cases had already been reported during the first two months of 2025. These are counts of reported cases, not estimates of every incident; unreported cases may not appear in the database.

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What abandonment can mean for a worker

When wages go unpaid, a seafarer can lose expected income while still needing food, medical care, and a route home. Failure to repatriate can leave a worker stuck away from home and unable to return to other employment. The IMO’s description of abandonment centers on these practical failures, rather than on a single delay or one universal set of circumstances.

What protections apply to abandoned or detained seafarers?

Abandonment guidance

IMO/ILO guidance calls for relevant authorities to coordinate a response, arrange settlement of outstanding wages, support repatriation, and provide essential assistance. The IMO’s official guidance addresses the responsibilities involved; the existence of guidance does not establish that it is enforced in every case or that a particular worker can readily obtain a remedy.

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Fair treatment during detention

In 2025, the IMO issued fair-treatment guidelines for seafarers detained in connection with alleged crimes. They address due process and the continuation of rights to wages, medical care, and repatriation during proceedings. Detention or prosecution is distinct from proof of guilt: a crew member’s knowledge, actions, and access to fair process must be considered individually.

Responsibility can involve several authorities, including the vessel’s flag State, port or coastal States, and a seafarer’s home State. Which authorities have a role depends on the vessel, location, alleged conduct, and applicable law.

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What is established—and what remains uncertain?

The Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 24 August 2025 article provides reported accounts of Indian seafarers and labor representatives, while the IMO’s material supplies broader context on substandard shipping, abandonment, and fair treatment. The IMO’s statistics and guidance do not independently verify the report’s individual cases.

The official materials cited here do not establish a reliable count of Indian nationals working on shadow-fleet vessels. The Thomson Reuters Foundation article gives estimates for the fleet’s share and growth, and for the number of Indians working on merchant vessels worldwide, but the article excerpt available for this account does not identify the original data publisher for those figures. They therefore should not be treated as independently verified counts or as precise measures of the number of Indian seafarers on shadow-fleet ships.

The safest reading is narrower: sanctions-related oil trade and opaque shipping practices can create employment in which some workers may be vulnerable to deception and abuse; reported abandonment is a wider maritime concern; and responsibility for any individual case must be established from evidence rather than inferred from a vessel label or a seafarer’s nationality.

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