Steen Justesen arrives unannounced and boards the Navion Oceania. He is a ship surveyor for the Danish Maritime Authority, here to carry out a Port State Control, checking the vessel’s seaworthiness and the crew’s working conditions.

This is a new, 260 meter-long, oil tanker sailing under a Norwegian flag with a Scandinavian crew.

Steen Justesen, ship surveyor, Danish Maritime Authority

If we find deficiencies for the safety reason, then the ship will be detained. For example if the emergency fire pump or the emergency generator didn’t work, then it will be detained.

Together the chief engineer and Steen Justesen test the emergency steering system and fire alarms.

Captain and crew understand it’s to uphold international standards.

Captain Arild Magnussen, master, Navion Oceania Tee-Kay Marine Services

There has to be a system for checking that the ships comply with every regulation and laws and these kinds of ships are used to controls not only from port authorities but also from the oil companies.

Other seafarers are not so lucky. Some find themselves exploited by unscrupulous employers, not paid their wages, even abandoned in foreign ports.

To improve working conditions across the industry, the International Labour Organization voted unanimously for a new maritime labour convention in February 2006. It provides the world’s 1.2 million seafarers with a “bill of rights”, which, unlike before, can be enforced in every port.

Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, director, International Labour Standards Dept, ILO

What we want to be able to ensure is that the international standards applying to this industry, which is a global industry, is also one that is universally applied.

The convention will provide the most comprehensive set of labour standards ever for the maritime industry. In a sector that handles 90 per cent of the world’s trade, this is good news for seafarers and for business.