(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The Indian Ocean Memorandum of Understanding (IOMOU) on Port State Control (PSC) has released its Annual Report for 2025, marking 25 years of regional collaboration dedicated to eliminating substandard shipping, protecting the marine environment, and safeguarding seafarer welfare.
The report highlights a pivotal year of structural modernization, strategic enforcement campaigns, and a rising institutional focus on oversight for historically under-regulated maritime sectors.
Core Inspection Metrics and Trends
Enforcement data from 2025 reveals an increase in regional maritime traffic surveillance:
Surveillance Volume: A total of 5,958 inspections were executed across the region, representing an 11.68% increase in inspection activity compared to 2024.
Deficiency and Detention Rates: Out of these, 3,072 vessels were found with non-compliances, generating 13,962 total recorded deficiencies. Severe infractions led to the detention of 261 ships. The overall regional detention rate ticked upward slightly to 4.38% (from 4.24% in 2024), while the average number of deficiencies per inspection rose to 2.34.
Disproportional Enforcement Burdens: Australia hosted the vast majority of regional enforcement activities, accounting for 2,769 inspections (46%), followed by Bangladesh at 1,085 inspections (18%). Conversely, several member states recorded minimal localized inspection counts.
High-Risk Ship Types and Flag State Vulnerabilities
The 2025 data underscores that certain vessel classes and registrations carry heightened systemic risk Profiles:
Performance by Ship Type: Bulk carriers represented the largest segment of inspections (3,147), maintaining a relatively low detention rate of 3.59%. However, smaller specialized utility vessels presented much higher risks; tugboats yielded an exceptionally high detention rate of 23.53%, followed by offshore service vessels at 10.53%.
Flag Performance Variances: Among open registries with more than 75 regional inspections, Panama (1,323 inspections) and Liberia (978 inspections) saw detention rates of 4.23% and 3.17%, respectively. Smaller flags exhibited severe compliance failures; Comoros saw 20 of its 42 inspected vessels detained (a 47.62% detention rate), while Saint Kitts and Nevis recorded a 23.44% detention rate across 64 inspections.
Dominant Deficiency Categories
Mechanical, technical, and operational vulnerabilities continued to dominate port state logs, with fire safety failures identified as the single largest systemic threat across the global fleet:
Technical Safeguards: Fire safety issues comprised 15.86% of all deficiencies (2,215 instances), followed closely by safety of navigation failures at 10.09% (1,409 instances) and lifesaving appliances at 8.78%.
Environmental Enforcement: Water/weathertight integrity represented 7.47% of infractions. While traditional MARPOL infractions remained steady, deficiencies related to Ballast Water Management spiked from 31 in 2024 to 76 in 2025, driven by focused regional monitoring.
Seafarer Welfare: Under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), health protection, medical care, and social security non-compliances made up 5.67% of total infractions.
Key Strategic and Structural Outcomes
The 28th IOMOU Committee Meeting, held in Maputo, Mozambique in August 2025, codified several major regulatory adjustments and forward-looking mandates:
The Overarching Database Agreement: On the sidelines of the IMO III-11 session, the IOMOU, alongside the Abuja and Tokyo MoUs, signed an agreement with the IMO Secretary-General to establish an interconnected database. This initiative aims to enhance transparency and cross-regime analytical capabilities.
Digital and Operational Innovation: The Committee approved the formal execution of Remote Inspection Workflows into the Indian Ocean Computerized Information System (IOCIS) and adopted operational guidelines for Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) utilizing body-worn cameras.
Expanding Oversight to Fishing Fleets: A major milestone was the official progress on the Indian Ocean MoU Fishing Vessel Information System (IOFIS), engineered alongside targeted funding strategies to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This aligns with global momentum toward the ratification of the IMO's 2012 Cape Town Agreement.
Ageing Fleets & Fraudulent Documentation: The Secretariat flagged growing regional anxiety regarding an aging global fleet, noting that some shipowners are deferring critical retrofits due to regulatory uncertainty. In response, enhanced targeting mechanisms have been mandated to detect fraudulent certifications and structural neglect.
Concentrated Inspection Campaigns (CICs): Following a 2024 campaign focused on crew wages and employment pacts, the IOMOU completed a 2025 campaign evaluating Ballast Water Management. Looking ahead, the committee formalized plans to conduct a joint CIC on Cargo Securing in 2026 alongside the Paris and Tokyo MoUs under the organizational theme: “Together We Inspect, Together We Protect.”
Click on the below image to download the full report with detailed statistics:
Source: Indian MOU
