Sandhya Drew on responsibility, abandonment and what “order” at sea can conceal
BlueRights Voices asks members of the network to unpack common assumptions about human rights at sea — and explain why getting them right matters.
In this first conversation, Sandhya Drew challenges an image so familiar that it has found its way into everyday language: the idea that life and work on board a ship are inherently orderly, controlled and secure. Everything, we like to say, is shipshape.
But the reality can be considerably more complicated.
The myth: everything is shipshape
Ships appear highly structured. There is a master, a crew, an owner and an established hierarchy. Seen from shore, it can therefore seem obvious who is responsible when something goes wrong.
Sandhya argues that this apparent order can be deceptive. Behind a vessel may sit a much more complex chain of relationships involving the shipowner, charterers, management companies, employers and third-party crewing agencies. Responsibility for the people working on board can consequently become fragmented.
And that fragmentation matters.
“If you don’t have responsibilities to start with, or it is not clear whether you do, then there’s no pressure to get the situation sorted out.”
When unclear responsibility becomes a human problem
The consequences become particularly stark when a ship is abandoned.
If an owner walks away from a vessel, questions that look technical on paper suddenly become very concrete: who is responsible for unpaid wages? Who provides food and supplies? Who arranges repatriation? Who has an obligation to resolve the situation?
For the seafarers still on board, simply leaving may not be straightforward. They may be owed wages and unable to walk away without putting what they are due at risk. The workplace that appeared ordered and secure can instead become a place from which they cannot easily escape.
As Sandhya puts it, “the ship becomes a little bit of your prison.”
That turns a question about corporate and legal responsibility into one about human rights.
Why it matters
Responsibility at sea is not an abstract legal puzzle. It determines whether people can exercise their rights in practice — and whether someone is required to act when those rights are threatened.
Abandonment can affect a seafarer’s livelihood, health and freedom at the same time. It illustrates why BlueRights looks across the rights to life, liberty and health, rather than treating each in isolation.
Making responsibility clearer therefore matters for more than good governance. It matters because behind every vessel, contract and jurisdictional arrangement are people whose rights do not disappear when they go to sea.
About Sandhya Drew
Sandhya Drew is an Associate Professor at City St George’s, University of London, and a member of BlueRights Working Group 2 on the Protection of Liberty at Sea. A barrister with extensive experience in employment, public and human rights law, her current research includes labour law at sea and seafarers’ working conditions. She is also a member of the London Universities Maritime Law and Policy Research Group.