Engagement

Our campaign called for urgent action to address this overlooked global humanitarian crisis and preserve the long-term sustainability of global supply chains.

In an open letter to the United Nations, and in consultation with key marine organisations, a consortium of international investors led by Fidelity and representing US$2 trillion of assets under management sought to end this humanitarian crisis.

One year later and the number of stranded seafarers was halved to 200,000.

However, despite these improvements, the issue has not been fully resolved and the threat of new Covid-19 variants could quickly reverse the tide. Seafarers still stuck far from home are often not part of local vaccine programmes and continue to face pandemic-related restrictions.

Each seafarer represents a link in the chain of global trade, and their situation risks a potential disruption of the kind we witnessed when the giant cargo ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal in March 2021.