Safe Recruitment
Recruitment Safety
Last updated: 2 September 2026
1. Protect Yourself During Recruitment
Maritime recruitment can involve international employers, crewing companies, vessels, travel arrangements, visas, certificates, and employment contracts. Seafarers should verify important information before providing documents, transferring money, travelling, or accepting employment.
2. Recruitment Fees
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 establishes standards for seafarer recruitment and placement. Under Standard A1.4, recruitment or placement fees should not be borne directly or indirectly by the seafarer, subject to the limited exceptions specified by the Convention for certain personal documents.
Be cautious if someone asks you to pay a large fee simply to obtain a job, secure an interview, reserve a position, receive an employment offer, or guarantee placement on a vessel.
3. Verify the Employer
Before accepting employment, independently verify the employer, shipowner, crewing company, or recruitment organization. Check official company contact information, registration details where available, and whether the person contacting you is authorized to represent the organization.
4. Verify the Vacancy
Review the vessel name, vessel type, rank, joining port, contract duration, salary, employer identity, and other employment conditions. If information is inconsistent, unusually vague, or changes repeatedly during recruitment, obtain clarification before proceeding.
5. Review Your Employment Agreement
Do not rely only on messages or verbal promises. Review the applicable seafarer employment agreement and ensure that important employment conditions are clearly documented before joining a vessel.
6. Protect Your Documents
Passports, seaman books, certificates, licenses, medical records, and other maritime documents can contain sensitive personal information. Provide them only where reasonably necessary for legitimate recruitment, verification, employment, or regulatory purposes.
Be particularly cautious if someone requests account passwords, email verification codes, banking passwords, card PINs, or other credentials that are not reasonably required for maritime recruitment.
7. Warning Signs
Common warning signs may include guaranteed employment in return for payment, pressure to transfer money immediately, requests to pay into unrelated personal accounts, inconsistent company identities, suspicious email addresses, altered documents, or refusal to provide verifiable employment information.
A single warning sign does not automatically establish fraud, but it is a reason to verify the recruitment independently before proceeding.
8. Communication Through Sea Licensing
When available, keeping recruitment communication within the Sea Licensing platform can help preserve a record of messages connected with an application or vacancy.
Be cautious when a person immediately attempts to move communication away from the platform while refusing to provide information that can be independently verified.
9. Report Suspicious Activity
If you encounter a suspicious vacancy, fraudulent document, impersonation attempt, payment request, or other potentially unsafe recruitment activity connected with Sea Licensing, contact us and provide as much relevant information as possible.
info@sealicensing.com10. International Maritime Standards
The International Labour Organization maintains the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and related information concerning seafarer employment, recruitment and placement, working conditions, and employment rights.
International Labour Organization - MLC, 200611. Important Notice
Sea Licensing provides a maritime careers and recruitment platform. Users remain responsible for independently reviewing employment arrangements and information supplied by other users before making important financial, travel, legal, or employment decisions.
Recruitment safety information is provided for general awareness and does not replace applicable law, flag-state requirements, employment agreements, or professional advice.