World governments need to take steps to get the thousands of overworked seafarers off their ships now or else the consequences could be dire, speakers at the International Maritime Organization's event on the crew change crisis said on Thursday.

A dozen speakers from across government and industry called conditions for the seafarers stuck aboard their ships due to Covid-19 "unsustainable", "extraordinary", "at a breaking point" and soon disruptive for the ailing global economy mired in a pandemic.