Westsea Gail
4 seafarers abandoned on the Westsea Gail (IMO 9550905, flag Australia) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 1 October 2023. ILO case 913, status: Resolved.
- Status
- Resolved
- Abandonment ID
- 913
- IMO Number
- 9550905
- Flag
- Australia
- Port of Abandonment
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Abandonment Date
- 1 October 2023
- Notification Date
- 12 March 2024
- Seafarers
- 4
- Reporting Org.
- International Transport Workers' Federation
Circumstances
2 seafarers have not been paid since August 2023 (7 months).
Their contracts have expired and they want to be repatriated.
The SEA’s makes reference to the vessel being covered by an ITF TCC, but this is not the case and never has been.
Updates
4 April 2025: International Transport Workers' Federation
The 2 seafarers were paid and repatriated home. This case has been resolved.
4 February 2025: International Maritime Organisation
I understand from your information that the tug was officially deregistered by the Registrar on 16 January 2025 after the registration had been suspended since 2016. Although the tug was subsequently registered in Tuvalu back in 2018, according to our information the registration there was deleted on 11 December 2018.
At the time of the abandonment on 1 October 2023 the tug was officially still registered in Australia, although suspended since 2016. Since the deregistration from the Australian register took only effect on 16 January 2025 and therefore after the date of abandonment, it would appear that from the date of the deletion in the registry of nationality of ships, the flag State is not further responsible to effectively exercise its jurisdiction and control in the sense of UNCLOS article 94. However, this may be without prejudice to responsibilities and obligations that were already vested before the deletion, as is the case with many flag State obligations concerning abandonment as in the MLC, 2006.
In view of this it would be appreciated if Australia as the responsible flag State on 1 October 2023, the date on which the tug was abandoned, could still contact the owner/operator at that time. I herewith copy to the colleague at S & P Global for the latest information regarding the flag registration.
I hope that this information is helpful, and I look forward to hearing further. All information received will be duly recorded on the joint ILO/IMO Database on Abandonment of Seafarers.
4 February 2025: Australia
(From ALTERNATE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE to the IMO)
I have been sent the below request from AMSA in Australia – are you able to assist? Although only officially deregistered by action of the Registrar last week – the registration has been suspended since 2016 and was subsequently registered in Tuvalu.
To ensure the vessel recorded in the IMO abandonment database is no longer listed as Australian flagged – we would be grateful if action could be taken to update the database again.
20 March 2024: International Maritime Organisation
I herewith would like to inform that IMO today received further confirmation from Mr. Mark Krzyzak at SP Global concerning Anchor Handling Tug Supply ‘WESTSEA GAIL’, IMO Number 9550905, that Tuvalu, who’s focal points are herewith included, registered the vessel in 2018 but also that it was deleted on 11 December 2018. As was notified on 13 March 2024, the vessel has currently on board 4 seafarers from India, who were abandoned in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 1 October 2023. The insurer is: UNKNOWN.
14 March 2024: Australia
I’d just like to confirm that the record needs to be amended to reflect that the vessel is not flagged to Australia. It has not been flagged to Australia since 2016.
12 March 2024: International Transport Workers' Federation
Maritime data sources including Equasis show the vessel as being Australia flagged, but the vessel is now under Tuvalu