Seafarers’ report highlights gaps and opportunities in crew welfare
The Delivering on Seafarers’ Rights 2025 Progress Report, published this week by the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) and the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), finds that welfare outcomes are shaped by how clearly responsibility is defined and embedded into governance and commercial decision-making.
The report draws on welfare data from 710 companies covering more than 13,000 vessels, alongside input from seafarers and welfare organisations. Key findings include:
- Evidence across the report reinforces the link between seafarer welfare, safety and operational resilience, with fatigue, isolation and psychological stress posing direct risks to safe shipping
- Stronger outcomes where expectations and accountability are clear, including in safe manning and medical cover
- The findings highlight the influence of charterers and cargo owners in driving welfare outcomes when expectations are built into commercial relationships. Weaker performance where responsibility is fragmented, notably in onboard connectivity, family support, and recruitment- related debt
- A continuing gap between policy commitments and lived experience on board, underlining the need for greater alignment across the shipping value chain
- Wide variation in welfare performance between vessels, including within the same company, underlining the limits of company-level commitments without ship-specific visibility
- Evidence from seafarers and welfare organisations shows that illegal recruitment fees remain a systemic risk, with enforcement gaps allowing exploitative practices to persist across recruitment chains
- Growing recognition of seafarer welfare as a safety, liability and risk issue, with insurers, P&I clubs and assurance providers emerging as important leverage points in driving higher standards
Ellie Besley-Gould, Chief Executive Officer of SSI, said: “Outcomes improve when welfare is embedded into commercial decision-making. When it is not, the cost is borne by seafarers. Closing this gap now requires coordinated action across the value chain.”
The report tracks uptake of the Delivering on Seafarers’ Rights Code of Conduct and associated tools, highlighting where further alignment is needed to support more consistent welfare outcomes across owners, operators, charterers and other industry actors.
Francesca Fairbairn, Institute for Human Rights and Business, added: “We continue to work for improved seafarer rights and welfare through the Code of Conduct and issue- specific initiatives with our collaborators and through collective action with industry and government.”
Contributions to the report include findings from: IHRB, TURTLE, Mission to Seafarers, BSM Ship Management, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS), South32, Lloyd’s Register. Klaveness Combination Carriers, DNV, Rio Tinto, RightShip, and Berge Bulk.