Uninhabited Ocean Speck Fuels Debate on Shipping’s False Flags
The issue of false flags continues to grow and promises to take center stage in an upcoming meeting of the IMO Legal Committee scheduled for the last week of April. Citing the dangers and the required steps, France and the Netherlands submitted proposals which are drawing attention as they highlighted two previously unheard-of registries.
France’s note to the IMO Secretariat calls out the “Maritime Administration of Matthew Island” citing it as the latest example of fraudulent registries. It has sent everyone scurrying to the Internet and reference sources to answer the question: where is Matthew Island?
Turns out it is an uninhabited island in the southern Pacific east of New Caledonia. France claims it as its territory, but Vanuatu has sought to challenge the rights saying it belongs to the indigenous people of its country. It does not much matter, because it is a volcanic outcropping and most sources note the size of the island changes due to volcanic and ocean activity.
The Netherlands at the same time is warning of another fraudulent registry posing as the registry of Sint Maarten calling itself the MSTA Registry operated by International Maritime Registries & Regulatory. Sint Maarten is the Dutch side of the Caribbean Island shared with the French who call it Saint Martin. While it is a popular cruise ship destination, the papers to the IMO assert that no one has been authorized to operate this registry.
The submission highlights the lack of transparency in both of these operations a point that they contend is common among these false flag operations. They note these two websites have very similar interfaces.
Shaddy operators emerging to operate so-called international registries is nothing new. Guyana at the end of 2024 highlighted that five tankers sanctioned by the U.S. were falsely displaying Guyana as their registry. The authorities noted that the country has a closed registry only available to residents and none of the ships qualified.
The IMO had previously said over 100 ships were showing in databases with false flags. As the shadow fleet of tankers grew to serve the Russian oil trade, as well as Iran, the number is thought to have increased dramatically. The UK in a submission to the IMO’s Legal Committee cited over 230 examples while some reports say it is now over 270 ships.
As part of the lead-up to the Legal Committee meeting, France and the Netherlands outlined a series of steps to continue the crackdown on false flags. In their submission they acknowledge “every state whether coastal or landlocked has the right to sail ships flying its flag on the high seas,” but they note there must be better records and transparency. They note there are various obligations of flag states and that communications are required among flag authorities or their managers, especially in the event of an accident or inspection.
They are calling for the IMO to require states to set conditions for registry in their national law. The IMO they said should use digital tools to confirm the authenticity of the registration certificate and enhance the procedures for the allocation of IMO numbers.
Liberia which uses an international manager for its flag also submitted a paper for the upcoming meeting. It supports the proposals previously submitted to the IMO while offering some suggested improvements for the effective use of resources and the enforcement of available tools.
The IMO started its latest efforts to step up the crackdown in 2019. At the time it outlined steps including the creation of the first database to track vessels under UN Security Council sanctions.
Top photo of Mathew Island in 2012 by Jd.Girard (CC BY-SA 3.0)