The Palau International Shipping Registry (PISR) said that the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) “falsely and unreservedly targeted the Republic of Palau and its Ship Registry as one of the four worst flags.”
In a press statement on Monday, PISR said statistical evidence stated by ITF is “inaccurate, misinterpreted and therefore clearly misleading.”
PISR said it applies a strict vetting process for vessel acceptance which has been audited by international bodies, including the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The registry added that they also took immediate action to address all cases brought to the Flag administration to benefit seafarers’ rights under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 and as recorded in the International Labour Organization’s official abandonment database, PISR swiftly addressed and officially resolved all abandonment issues.
PISR also has improved its standing within the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) in the last five years. PISR only had 9 detentions out of 162 inspections as per the last published Paris MoU report.
PISR for consecutive years has been in the top third tier of the Grey List in both the Paris MoU and Tokyo MoU.
In the past three years, only two vessels registered to PISR were sent for demolition from the Mediterranean. Neither of these vessels recorded unsafe shipping issues or abandonment cases. PISR operates under the highest regulatory, professional, and ethical standards and calls into question the rationale behind this campaign toward them.
Earlier ITF named the Palau Flag of Convenience registry as one of the “worst flags” operating in the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the ITF website, up p to a thousand ships flagged to the Cook Islands, Palau, Sierra Leone, and Togo will be the subject of safety, maintenance, and seafarer welfare inspections across the Mediterranean Sea in the coming eight weeks.
These are now the worst flags operating in the Mediterranean Sea,” said Seddik Berrama, General Secretary of Algeria’s transport union FNTT and ITF Vice President for the Arab World region.