C2.5.1.d. Can a seafarer be charged for repatriation costs?

Standard A2.5.1, paragraph 3 of the MLC, 2006 prohibits shipowners from requiring that seafarers make an advance payment towards the cost of repatriation at the beginning of their employment, and also from recovering the cost of repatriation from the seafarers’ wages or other entitlements except where the seafarer has been found, in accordance with national laws or regulations or other measures or applicable collective bargaining agreements, to be in serious default of the seafarer’s employment obligations. This situation does not release the shipowner from the obligation to pay for the repatriation in the first instance.

Repatriation