Ship abandonment can occur for a variety of reasons and cannot be defined in a single way.
Jurisdiction is often unclear because many abandoned vessels sailed under "flags of convenience" (open registries).
An amendment to the Maritime Labour Convention made it easier for unpaid crew to be paid via insurance.
In 2020 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) database listed 438 ships worldwide, with 5,767 crew members, abandoned since 2004; not all cases are referred to the IMO, so the actual number is larger, but unknown.
Seafarers' problems, including abandonment, in the Arab world and Iran were sufficiently severe for the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to set up a network for the region; its coordinator said "The flood of calls to ITF in the Arab region has never stopped.