Thomas Brown is managing director of Seacurus, a company providing Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 compliant insurance cover.

Commenting on the Donald Duckling case, he said: “We witnessed firsthand the desperate plight of an abandoned crew, discarded by their employer and left to rely on the goodwill of the local people and the support of local maritime charities.

“We would have hoped that the ship’s last P&I [protection-and-indemnity] insurer would have come to the rescue of the seafarers by financing and arranging their repatriation in accordance with the widely publicised International Group rule change.