The ten-month crisis with a lack of crew changes on the world's merchant vessels will be worsened if charterers do not stop using "no crew change" clauses in the freight documents accompanying seaborne transports.

Kitack Lim, secretary general at the IMO, indicates in a circular letter addressed to members of the UN's maritime organization, among others, that "hundreds of thousands of seafarers" remain stranded at sea far beyond the extent of their original contracts. Furthermore, some are not being paid and all are unable to be repatriated. The reason is coronavirus restrictions.