The Directorate General of Shipping (DG Shipping) has cracked down on 97 Recruitment and Placement Services (RPS) agencies for violating maritime regulations. It blocked 74 of them; suspended five and withdrew licenses permanently for 18 between January 1, 2024, and May 5, 2025.

The state-owned DGS is involved in the promotion of maritime education and training in co-ordination with the International Maritime Organization, and on regulation of employment and welfare of Indian seamen.

The crackdown by DGS is due to increase in the number of issues like fraudulent recruitment and seafarer exploitation by RPS agencies by using fake documents to get jobs on board ships abroad. After placing them, they abandon them and these seafarers are subject to inhumane treatment on board ships on foreign ships. This highlights systemic issues in India’s maritime sector, which employs over 250,000 seafarers, said a source.

“Over 71 vessel cases are active at present, and all the ships are abroad,” a source in DGS said. “Our aim is to curb rogue agents,” the source said without giving any number. There are cases of serious frauds, submitting fake docs, cheating innocent seafarers by taking money and putting them on substandard ships. The seafarers get abandoned in these ships and are being ill-treated, the source added.

The DG Shipping e-Governance online privileges of the RPS agency have been blocked for signing-on seafarers, pending the issuance of a Show Cause Notice (SCN) and further investigation. However, the RPS agency is permitted to sign off seafarers who were onboarded or e-migrated through their agency, said a DGS trade circular.

In case of those suspended, the licence of the concerned RPS agency is suspended by the Competent Authority for a specified period. The status ‘Withdrawn’ means the RPS license granted to the concerned RPS agency has been permanently revoked by the Competent Authority.

The action aligns with the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, specifically Regulation 1.4, which mandates strict oversight of private seafarer recruitment services, requiring licensing systems and financial protections like insurance to safeguard seafarers from monetary losses due to agency failures.

The issue is serious because of bad employment given by many RPS to young seafarers in countries like Iran and Malaysia, Capt Sanjay Prashar, a marine HR professional and CEO of Mumbai-based VR Maritime. There are over 500 RPS in India, and there is no fear for quality employers. Credit goes to seafarers who raised complaints against these 97 Indian RPS companies on whom action has been taken, he said in a social media post.