The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) announced the launch of a campaign in the Mediterranean to Four flags under examination in view of the poor ascertained level of safety of the ships flying them, being included in the Black lists and Grey lists of Paris MoU and Tokyo Mou, the Memoranda of Understanding on the safety control of the navigation by port States. ITF has announced that Over the next eight weeks, an army of its own inspectors and those of other seafarers' unions and authorities dockers will carry out checks throughout the Mediterranean on the Safety and welfare of seafarers on board ships flying the flags of the Cook Islands, Palau, Sierra Leone and Togo.

ITF explained that the campaign was decided on the basis of of a recent analysis showing how the registers of the four flags of convenience were related to more than 100 members crews of ships abandoned in the last two years, with millions of dollars in unpaid wages from shipowners to crews that ITF subsequently had to recover on behalf of the Maritime. 'Substandard maritime transport in the Mediterranean - underlined the coordinator of the inspectorate of the ITF, Steve Trowsdale - is deteriorating wages and conditions of seafarers, endangering the lives of seafarers. crews and putting our environment at risk. These flags They take money from shipowners to register ships that other nations They would not touch with a finger. Many of these are old ships and They are poorly maintained by their owners. Many of these ships are dangerous and should not operate."

"Our goal - explained Seddik Berrama, General Secretary of the Algerian Transport Union FNTT and Deputy President of the ITF for the Arab World Region - is from highlight examples of substandard shipping that We see regularly in our ports. If we are able to make in the public domain that the abuses suffered by the crews are too much Often ignored by these flags, then we will send the fort message that substandard shipping is not tolerable."