Crew Crisis To Trigger Ship Detentions And Diversions Around 200,000 seafarers still can't get home due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Expired and extended crew contracts are piling up. Now, some port inspectors are beginning to balk and detain arriving vessels. "We are not just talking about a humanitarian crisis. This is turning into something that has a real impact on the global supply chain," warned Belal Ahmed, chairman of the International Maritime Employers Council (IMEC), during a webinar presented by Capital Link on Wednesday. More port detentions — and voyage diversions to facilitate crew changes and avoid detentions — would reduce effective ship capacity. Lower capacity would curtail shippers' ability to move cargo across the globe. It would also elevate spot rates, a positive for owners of ships that aren't detained or diverted. The "freshness" of crew contracts would become a competitive advantage for shipowners and a metric vetted by charterers. The billion-dollar question is: Which countries' port-state control (PSC) authorities will strictly enforce minimum manning standards and detain ships?