Last week the EU issued a directive that all ships sailing through its waters need to provide proof of insurance, though what happens when that 'proof' is a worthless piece of paper from a marine insurer that does not have any financial backing or a license to operate is unclear. This is a useful intelligence gathering exercise for those ships that comply. But there are limits to enforcement even if/when there is a willingness to do so.
As the case of the Madhav shows, it is one thing to ask and another to be able to do something about it. Over the past week unflagged tanker Madhav sailed unchallenged through the Baltic Sea, Danish Strait and English Channel, falsely claiming to be flying the flag of Djibouti, with its class and insurance (if it has any) clearly invalidated. The 2008-built, elderly, UK and EU-sanctioned tanker not only flouted all international maritime rules but likely ignored radio contact and requests by maritime authorities during its voyage through EU and UK waters requesting information about its flag and insurance.
For most of this year the UK along with Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Estonia have authorities that radio suspect and/or dark fleet tankers transiting in their region asking for proof of insurance as part of maritime security efforts. The fact that Madhav wasn’t interdicted during its transit shows the unwillingness of maritime authorities to provocatively interpret the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, the ‘constitution of the oceans’ that provides ships sailing through international shipping navigation lanes in territorial waters with the right of 'innocent passage'.
Turkey requests proof of insurance for all Bosporus transits yet there’s no evidence this increases tonnage quality and/or makes seas safer, though I may not have access to the right datasets to draw this conclusion. And last month Estonia passed an amendment allowing its navy to challenge foreign ships suspected or involved in damaging undersea cables in light of the Eagle S incident.
Such a development might get interesting if adopted by Singapore or Malaysia to address the dozens of loitering dark fleet tankers off the Riau archipelago undertaking their dangerous ship-to-ship transfers of sanctioned oil outside port state control scrutiny, when they need to sail into their nearby waters for bunkers/supplies and/or crew changes.