DGMA Restricts Indian Seafarer Deployment in Sarawak and Mandates Insurance Safeguards

The Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) has imposed a ban on the recruitment and deployment of Indian seafarers on vessels operating within inland, riverine, coastal, and port-limit waters of Malaysia’s Sarawak region. Alongside this operational restriction, the maritime regulatory authority has directed recruitment agencies to ensure mandatory financial coverage for Indian crew members engaged on foreign-flagged ships that lack conventional liability protections.

Regulatory Action and Bilateral Context

Exercising statutory authority under Section 301 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025, the DGMA directed all Recruitment and Placement Service Licence (RPSL) agencies to cease deploying Indian personnel to vessels operating exclusively in the Sarawak sector. The measure follows repeated fatal accidents involving young Indian maritime workers in these waters over recent years. As part of bilateral administrative coordination between India and Malaysia, findings and recommendations were provided by the Malaysia Marine Department (MMD) regarding safety standards, sign-on and sign-off practices, and deployment protocols on Malaysian-flagged vessels to curb preventable workplace fatalities.

Mandatory Financial Security and Welfare Measures

To establish institutional safety nets for overseas maritime labor, the regulator also enforced a financial security mandate on recruitment agencies:

• Alternative Insurance Coverage: Where a foreign-flagged vessel is not covered by standard Protection & Indemnity (P&I) insurance, the responsible RPSL agency must secure an independent insurance policy.
• Minimum Sum Assured: The coverage must provide financial protection of not less than ₹1 crore per seafarer.
• Authorized Underwriters: Policies must be obtained from domestic insurance entities approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

For civil services aspirants, this development illustrates the administrative enforcement of labor safeguards, extraterritorial worker protection frameworks, and maritime regulatory compliance governed by the updated Merchant Shipping Act.