Hundreds of thousands seafarers are currently stranded on high seas or on shore by the coronavirus pandemic. They kept working through the crisis to keep global trade afloat and ensure fuel supplies. But now, after months of lockdowns across the world, many have been stuck on ships thousands of miles from home, unable to disembark, for much longer than expected – and than legally allowed.

"The international regulations state that a seafarer can do no more than 11 months at sea," explains Jim Scorer, secretary general of the International Federation of Shipmasters' Associations. "Well, I have to say that with the agreed extensions that have been put in place for the seafarers, some have now done 15 months onboard and increasingly many more have spent over 12 months. And this is a real worry."

Cargo ships are estimated to deliver 90 percent of the global trade in goods – from food to clothes – thanks to 1.6 million workers. Amid the initial coronavirus pandemic chaos, while tourists and cruise passengers were repatriated, seafarers were asked to stay at sea to keep the shipping industry running. Now they're working beyond their contract, under incredibly stressful circumstances, without knowing when they'll be able to go home, and unable to leave their cargos as countries close their borders and impose strict COVID-19 restrictions.

Crew changes are desperately needed for at least 400,000 seafarers – both those stuck on ships, and those left on shore, waiting for work. "When you think that usually we're changing and rotating around about 200,000 seafarers a month around the world, we are falling far, far behind from where we need to be," says Scorer.

The emotional, psychological, and physical wellbeing of seafarers is at risk, and it's making the industry talk of a real health and safety crisis.

"We've got seafarers who have spent months away from their families, who while at sea have missed weddings, they've missed perhaps relatives dying and not being able to go to funerals. They missed the birth of their children," says Guy Platten, secretary general of International Chamber of Shipping.

"They're getting fatigued. There's mental health issues. There's potential safety issues with this. And it really can't go on."

The concern is also that the stress and fatigue of seafarers might affect their work and pose a risk to their safety. "As they get more fatigued, the longer they spend at sea and they are distracted by things that are going on at home, I'm afraid that mistakes will be made," says Scorer. "One of the issues that we are concerned about is that when there is an accident, it is often the seafarer that gets blamed and then criminalized."

There have been cases where COVID-19 measures impeding seafarers from entering ports meant many were refused critical medical treatment. "Actually, the seafarers who get sick, it's almost certainly not COVID-19," explains Platten. "Seafarers having strokes and heart attacks and things like that are being denied that absolutely vital medical treatment because of the current pandemic." It's a humanitarian crisis for these men and women stuck at sea, working for us to have everything we need."

Trade unions and organizations representing seafarers ask that governments recognize them as essential workers and allow them to travel to and from work. Many government have already done this – for example the UK, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Canada, and New Zealand are now open for crew changes.

"It's a real urgent situation. What frustrates me is it can't be solved with goodwill from governments," says Platten. "We really plea with them now, just to listen to us. Classify seafarers as essential workers, remove the administrative and bureaucratic hurdles which are in place and help facilitate crew travel.

Together with the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Chamber of Shipping published a 12-step set of protocols for safe crew changes, establishing "safe corridors" between countries on the premise that commercial seafarers are recognized as key workers.

"We're not going to solve all crew changes in one go," says Platten. "We accept that it's going to take time to resolve the situation. But a lot of the problem with seafarers, it's that they just don't know when they'll get off the ship."