Latest news with #FlagsofConvenience
Scroll.in
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Toxic wake-up call: What Kerala should earn from Sri Lanka's shipwreck nightmare
June 2025 marks four years since the container vessel X-Press Pearl, ablaze and bleeding toxins into the Indian Ocean, transformed Sri Lanka's golden coastline into a graveyard of marine life and livelihoods. The fire burned for 13 days – but its consequences still smolder. Plastic nurdles still wash up with the tide. Fishers still net smaller catches. Courts still chase compensation as corporations count profits. A $6.4- billion suit for damages resulted in just and measly $7.85 million being paid out in compensation. Now, off Kerala's coast, MSC Elsa-3 and Wan Hai 503 lie in uneasy silence, ticking time bombs in sunken rusted hulls, carrying their own cargo of chemical danger and bureaucratic amnesia. The parallels are not just uncanny. They are intolerable. Sri Lanka's disaster occurred during economic collapse. Kerala has no such excuse. Yet our response of being initially reluctant to arrest the captain or file suits and merely settle for insurance We are not witnessing accidents. We are watching a global pattern. When ships carrying hazardous cargo sail under Flags of Convenience and developing nations lack enforcement muscle, disasters are inevitable. The question is whether Kerala and India will simply react – or lead. Sri Lanka's experience reveals three fatal governance failures. First, the illusion of preparedness. Colombo's ports had no real spill protocol. Kerala's current response – hand-sieving plastic nurdles from beaches – is equally symbolic. Fire on the MV X-Press Pearl off the coast of Sri Lanka caused a vast spill of hazardous chemicals, including corrosive nitric acid -wiping out wildlife & devastating livelihoods for fishing families. 3 yrs on, allegations a web of corruption hampers clean up & compensation.🧵 — leanahosea (@leanahosea) October 30, 2024 Second, the compensation trap. Sri Lanka recovered just 0.1% of its estimated losses. Unless Kerala demands upfront cleanup funds and legal liability, we risk similar token payouts. Third, institutional amnesia. Despite mass fish deaths and toxic runoff, Sri Lanka never revised its port clearance laws. Kerala's unchanged protocols after two wrecks suggest not just institutional denial, but a troubling deference to the interests of powerful private conglomerates. This is unbecoming of a Left Democratic Front in power. The time for half-measures is over. Kerala must act decisively – scientifically, legally, and regionally. First, we need real-time ecological forensics. Deploy the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Institute of Oceanographyand relevant agencies to map contamination, not months later but now. Equip fisherfolk with toxin test kits and crowdsource coastal data. Create public databases to make corporate secrecy impossible. Second, use India's own laws, not distant arbitration. File criminal charges under the relevant Environmental Protection and Criminal Negligence Acts. Demand that MSC and Wan Hai deposit clean-up funds before negotiations. And if port operators remain lax, freeze their assets until safety reforms are in place. Third, empower the people who know the sea best. Train fisher collectives as first responders. Enable them to file claims as cooperatives. Use community science tools to track fish catch declines and contamination trends. Finally, this must go beyond Kerala. India should lead a South Asian Maritime Safety Pact. Share blacklists of repeat-offender shipping lines. Coordinate joint drills with regional navies. After all, oil slicks and plastic nurdles do not respect borders. We have a narrow window to act. The sea, once betrayed, is slow to forgive. If Kerala fails to learn from Colombo, we too will face empty beaches, poisoned nets, and endless courtrooms. The X-Press Pearl showed the cost of silence. Kerala now has a choice: protect our shores or become another case study in global environmental neglect.
News18
12-06-2025
- General
- News18
'Undeclared Hazards, Illegal Registrations': Singapore Ship Blaze Exposes Loopholes, Ecological Risks
Last Updated: Govt reports suggest these incidents have shown that the abuse of Flags of Convenience (FoC) is not just a loophole but a deliberate strategy for profit at the expense of safety. India is facing significant ecological and social costs due to the mishandling of ships by third countries, government sources have told CNN-News18. Government sources have raised serious concerns following recent coastal accidents. The sinking of the MSC Elsa 3 in May 2025 and the MV Wan Hai 503 fire in June 2025 have highlighted significant flaws in the maritime system. The fire on the MV Wan Hai 503 poses a severe risk to Indian coasts. Government reports suggest that these incidents have shown that the abuse of Flags of Convenience (FoC) is not merely a loophole but a deliberate strategy for profit at the expense of safety. Currently, 45 per cent of global tonnage sails under FoCs, creating a conflict between sovereign accountability and negligent convenience. The MV Wan Hai 503, carrying 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil and 240 tonnes of diesel, is a significant oil spill threat. Government sources warn that a breach in the vessel could lead to a catastrophic spill, contaminating Kerala's coastline from Kozhikode to Kochi during the monsoon season. Additionally, the ship has 157 containers of hazardous materials, including pesticides (Class 6.1), lithium batteries (Class 9), and flammable liquids (Class 3), posing risks of toxic cargo leakage. These substances could leach toxins into marine ecosystems and be carried ashore by monsoon waves, threatening fish stocks and coastal habitats. Already, 40–50 containers have fallen overboard and are drifting towards Kerala's coast, sources said. Government inspections have been criticised for being perfunctory, often relying on paperwork over physical checks. For example, the MSC Elsa 3 had 21 deficiencies noted in Rotterdam but was never declared unseaworthy. Inadequate risk profiling allows ships with repeated violations, like the MSC Elsa 3 with its flag-hopping history, to evade scrutiny. Although the Sea Cargo Manifest and Transshipment Regulations (SCMTR) of 2018 mandate digital manifests for hazardous goods, the MV Wan Hai 503 carried undeclared explosives among its hazardous cargo. Local authorities in Kerala were also criticised for failing to issue timely public advisories regarding the MSC Elsa 3's calcium carbide cargo. There are serious accountability gaps in the system, with FoC abuse being very common. According to government data, 45 per cent of global shipping tonnage is registered under Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands, enabling regulatory evasion through lax oversight, tax avoidance, and weak labour enforcement standards. For instance, the MSC Elsa 3, which sank with 13 undeclared hazardous containers, was registered under the Liberian flag. Similarly, the Wan Hai 503 was Singaporean-flagged but owned by Taiwanese interests, with hazardous cargo misdeclaration suspected in the explosions. FoC states often lack the resources for thorough investigations, delaying liability attribution and compensation. Liberia, for example, ignored India's probe into the MSC Elsa 3 incident. FoC states like Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands outsource vessel inspections to private agencies, leading to cursory checks and certification. The MSC Elsa 3, despite its 21 deficiencies, was never declared unseaworthy. The Wan Hai 503, carrying 157 containers of hazardous materials including undeclared explosives and lithium batteries, also exemplifies this issue. These incidents reflect broader systemic problems, including the hiring of cheap, inexperienced labour to cut costs, sources point out. The Wan Hai 503's crew, lacking training in hazardous cargo management, delayed fire containment efforts, leading to the loss of four crew members during evacuation and inadequate emergency protocols. The MSC Elsa 3's underwater fuel tanks posed a significant oil spill risk affecting 200 km of coastline. FoC states often avoid funding cleanups, shifting the burden to coastal states. Following these incidents, Kerala banned fishing, severely impacting communities during peak season and causing a 40% drop in tourism revenue post-Elsa 3 due to pollution fears. Furthermore, the MSC Elsa 3 criminal case remains stalled due to Liberia's non-cooperation, while the Wan Hai 503 owners delayed sharing cargo manifests. AIS manipulation is another issue, as FoC vessels often deactivate trackers to hide their locations. Government sources report that GPS jumps increased from 600 km in 2024 to 6,300 km in 2025, raising collision risks. Shadow fleets under FoCs like Panama are known to transport illegal goods, with 29 per cent of global vessels using FoCs to facilitate arms and drug smuggling. The mishandling of ships by third countries under FoCs poses significant ecological and social risks to India, necessitating urgent systemic reforms and stricter regulatory oversight. First Published: June 12, 2025, 11:38 IST News india 'Undeclared Hazards, Illegal Registrations': Singapore Ship Blaze Exposes Loopholes, Ecological Risks
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India guns for FoC regime as MSC ELSA 3 disaster hits hard, Infra News, ET Infra
Advt Advt By , ETInfra Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis. Get updates on your preferred social platform Follow us for the latest news, insider access to events and more. MUMBAI: India is gunning for ships registered in so-called Flags of Convenience (FoC) regimes such as the Liberia-flagged MSC ELSA 3 that capsized and sank off the coast of Kerala on May 25 with a senior official saying that the country 'must call for tighter international regulation of FoC regimes through the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to hold them accountable'.'India's reliance on ships registered in FoC regimes for over 97 per cent of its export-import (EXIM) trade has quietly but alarmingly evolved into a critical vulnerability,' said the official. 'It is a hidden risk in India's maritime trade due to our weak leverage over FoC vessels ,' he FoC vessels, typically registered in jurisdictions such as Liberia, Panama, and the Marshall Islands, promise cost-efficiency and operational flexibility. 'But, behind this apparent commercial advantage lies a systemic erosion of regulatory oversight, accountability, and maritime sovereignty . The recent MSC ELSA 3 disaster off the Kerala coast offers a chilling illustration of the dangers embedded in this dependence,' the official be sure, FoC registries are widely used in global shipping, accounting for nearly 76 per cent of the world's merchant fleet by deadweight tonnage or DWT. These registries typically offer lax regulatory environments, permitting shipowners to circumvent stringent labour laws, environmental obligations, and safety protocols. 'In effect, they allow for the outsourcing of accountability. A vessel owned in one country, operated from another, and flagged in a third, with little to no regulatory coherence between them, is increasingly the norm,' the official pointed which depends on such ships for an overwhelming majority of its international trade, has little say in their operation or safety standards.'When things go wrong, as it did with the MSC ELSA 3, the costs are borne not by the flag states, but by coastal nations. The Liberian-flagged ELSA 3 had a murky record: multiple name changes, a long list of port state deficiencies, and a cargo manifest including 12 containers of calcium carbide, a highly dangerous substance. After the vessel capsized, Liberia, the flag state, refused to participate in the investigation. While technically permissible under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), such non-participation exposes the glaring shortcomings of the FoC model,' the official refusals, though, are not rare. The global record of FoC vessels is riddled with examples of regimes shirking 1999, 'Erika', a Maltese-flagged tanker, sank off the coast of Brittany, causing a spill of 20,000 tonnes of oil and devastating marine life in one of Europe's worst environmental disasters. The regulatory response from the flag state (Malta) was 2002, the oil tanker 'Prestige', flying the Bahamas flag, broke in two off the coast of Spain, spilling over 63,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the Atlantic. The cleanup stretched across the Spanish, French, and Portuguese coasts and cost over $1 billion. The flag state (Bahamas) remained largely absent from the such incidents include 'MV Rena' off the coast of New Zealand in 2012 and the 'MV Wakashio' off Mauritius in 2020 - both FoC vessels, both culminating in environmental disasters, and both met with detachment from the FoC MSC ELSA 3 incident, according to the official, is a continuation of this disturbing pattern that underscore how the FoC system enables shipowners to evade accountability, placing disproportionate burdens on coastal nations.'The fallout, both environmental and administrative, fell squarely on Indian agencies, while the flag state (Liberia) and the shipowner remained comfortably insulated. Such a lopsided burden-sharing structure is deeply problematic for a country like India, which is aspiring to be a global maritime hub and a responsible coastal state,' the official ships are frequently crewed by underpaid, undertrained personnel from multiple nationalities, making enforcement of labour standards and safety training extremely difficult, said a shipping industry official. Several reports have flagged discrepancies in crew competency, falsified certifications, and weak safety cultures aboard such ships. Indian Port State Control inspections frequently cite such issues, but with limited capacity and jurisdiction, enforcement is often superficial, he pointed out.'India's dependence on FoC ships also means a diminished role for its domestic shipping industry, weakening the strategic and economic resilience of the nation. At a time when geopolitical and climate risks are rising, this lack of sovereign control over vessels operating on national trade routes is a strategic liability,' the industry official observed.A concerted policy reorientation is required to tackle this issue, the government official mentioned earlier said.'India must renew efforts to strengthen its own flag registry and incentivise Indian ship ownership. It must call for tighter international regulation of FoC regimes through the IMO and allied maritime conventions. The current overdependence on FoC ships may appear economically expedient, but it is strategically reckless and environmentally dangerous. The MSC ELSA 3 tragedy is not an outlier, it is a warning. Unless India takes corrective action, it risks being perpetually vulnerable to the costs of a global shipping system designed to evade responsibility while enjoying unrestricted access to coastal economies like India,' the official added.
