THERE are currently 432 ships on the IMO’s database recognised as fraudulently flagged.

There are also multiple fraudulent operations in that official UN agency-administered database passing themselves off as legitimate government entities.

In the Baltic Sea this week we saw the 50th fraudulently flagged transit of a vessel since the grouping of eight Nordic Baltic states issued notice in June that joint action would be taken against Russia’s shadow fleet.

By way of a reminder, this was a statement issued by Nato’s Baltic coastal states who noted that fraudulently flagged ships were “not entitled” to freedom of navigation under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea.

Since then, Norway, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Germany have all routinely been checking the insurance details and flag certification of shadow fleet tankers passing their EEZs.

They have also been shadowing these ships with an overt mix of naval assets, air support and forensic satellite monitoring, all with the knowledge that the fake certification being offered up was a complete nonsense.

The fact that no ship has yet been detained is entirely down to the fear that such a move would immediately escalate Russian aggression, making this week’s drone incursions into Danish airspace look like a minor traffic violation by comparison.

The assumption behind all this impotent monitoring had been that, if nothing else, the lists of fraudulently flagged ships being dutifully collated by member states, would end up on the next sanctions list.

According to the draft list of 124 sanction targets we have seen, that is not the case. Just two ships currently known to be flying fictional flags appear on the list.

While that list may yet be amended before publication, it would appear that the EU is not ready to go after the rapidly growing market of fake registries or the ships hopping between them for sanctions cover.

The prospect of EU sanctions was never going to fix this issue. The system is broken, and the fraudulent registries have simply capitalised on that gap in the system and the pace of response.

However, ignoring the growing trade lanes of unaccountable, dangerous ships transiting European waters is not an option.

Some sanctioned ships are now clocking up multiple flag changes in the space of a week, and the shopping list of fraudulent sites offering safe haven to order is growing by the day.

EU sanctions would likely only shift the problem. Even if they could, theoretically, find a way to deal with the websites and the fake flag operations, they would only be tackling the symptoms of a much more serious disease that is undermining the rules-based order upon which shipping relies.

But when one of these fraudulently flagged tankers is involved in a serious casualty in European waters, as one inevitably will be, questions will be asked about why monitoring was not followed up by enforcement.

Richard Meade,
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

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