Martin Lex is the pen name of the 7S1L safety desk: SOLAS, lifesaving and firefighting gear, muster drills, emergency signals and safe work on board. Portrait is illustrative.
Look up the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag and you find Basseterre on the map and Romford in the paperwork. The register, SKANReg, is administered by the office of the Registrar of Ships at York House on Western Road in Romford, on the eastern edge of London, acting for the government of the two-island state. Nothing about that is unusual in shipping. What is unusual is the combination it comes with: a place on the Paris MoU black list, a listing on the ITF register of flags of convenience, and a fully ratified MLC with a written complaint route down to the e-mail address. A seafarer signing under this flag gets the Convention on paper and a flag state with a weak inspection record behind it.
Before you sign a contract under the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag, know which laws apply. You can check your seafarer contract free in the Seafarer Contract Checker. Pick Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the report reads your SEA against MLC 2006 and the verified flag facts.
The law under the SEA
Saint Kitts and Nevis registered its MLC 2006 ratification on February 21, 2012, early for a small register. The Convention was written into national law through the Merchant Shipping Act and the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention, 2006) Regulations 2013. That is the text a court or the Registrar applies to a seafarer employment agreement on a Saint Kitts and Nevis ship: the Convention's minimums, carried into the flag's own regulations.
The register then explained the complaint side of those regulations in a circular. Maritime Circular MC/51/13, revised in May 2014, sets out the on-board and the on-shore complaint route and names the Registrar's office as the address for a complaint the master and the shipowner do not resolve. For a black list flag, that is more than most offer. Several registers in the same part of the Paris MoU table publish no seafarer address at all.
What the MLC floor looks like on this flag
Because the flag ratified and legislated, every Saint Kitts and Nevis ship of 500 gross tons or more on international voyages must carry a Maritime Labour Certificate and a Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance. Ask to see both at sign-on; they are meant to be available to crew. The declaration tells you how the flag implemented each rule, and the SEA has to match it. The lines to read:
- A written SEA, signed by you and the shipowner or the shipowner's representative, with an original you keep.
- Wages at least monthly, with a monthly statement of pay and deductions.
- At least 10 hours of rest in any 24 and 77 in any seven days, recorded and countersigned by you.
- Paid annual leave of at least 2.5 calendar days per month of service.
- Repatriation at the shipowner's cost after a stated maximum time on board.
- Medical care and sick pay after illness or injury, within the limit the flag allows.
- The on-board complaint procedure, in writing, handed over with the SEA.
On an open register with no national collective agreement behind it, the floor tends to be the offer: the shortest sickness cover the Convention allows, the lowest overtime surcharge, seven days of notice. If your SEA names an ITF approved collective agreement, your paper is stronger. If the recruiter cannot say whether one applies, ask in writing and keep the answer. The general warning signs are in our guide to seafarer contract red flags.
Black list, low performance, flag of convenience
Three public lists describe this flag, and none of them is kind. On the Paris MoU performance list valid July 1, 2026 to July 6, 2027, Saint Kitts and Nevis stands on the black list at rank 60 of 69, the best of the ten black list flags but still on it. The Tokyo MoU rates the flag low performance for 2022 to 2024. The ITF lists the register as a flag of convenience on its 2025 list.
What that means at the gangway is concrete. A port state control officer in Hamburg or Gioia Tauro sees a black list flag and moves the ship up the inspection priority. The officer boards more often, looks harder at the crew documents, and detains the ship more readily when the SEA, the rest hour records or the payslips do not match reality. That is a risk for the owner and, oddly, a protection for you: your paper is going to be read by someone with the power to hold the ship. Keep it in order. The same three ratings stand on the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag page of the checker, next to the verified contacts.
If something goes wrong on board
Follow the circular. MC/51/13 puts the on-board procedure first: raise it with your head of department or the officer the procedure names, then the master, in writing, with a copy for you. If that fails, the complaint goes to the Registrar's office in Romford by e-mail, and the register's phone number is a London one. Copy the ITF at the same time. A complaint that sits in an inbox in Romford while the ship is in Santos is a complaint without a deadline; a complaint that reaches the ITF inspector in Santos has one.
The path ashore is the same as under any flag, and it does not depend on the flag answering. Port state control applies MLC 2006 to the ship in port, whatever the register. On a black list flag that door opens faster than most. How the escalation works from your supervisor up to the ITF is covered in How to Use the MLC Contract Check.
Saint Kitts and Nevis flag in the contract: what I check before sign-on
- The SEA names Saint Kitts and Nevis as the flag and the 2013 Regulations, not a generic clause, as the governing law.
- Basic wage, overtime and leave pay in separate lines. A consolidated wage hides the overtime rate.
- The sickness clause: how many weeks of wages after you are landed sick, and when liability ends.
- The repatriation clause names the shipowner as the payer and sets a maximum time on board.
- A collective agreement is named and attached, or you know in writing that none applies.
- You received the on-board complaint procedure with the SEA, and the Maritime Labour Certificate is on board.
How this register compares with every other flag, including the other black list flags, is in our guide to flags of convenience and your contract. For the biggest open register of all, the one that climbed back from the grey list, read our guide to Panama flag labor law.
How the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag rates in port state control
Port state control keeps score on every flag. The regional inspection regimes publish each year which registers get detained most, and the ITF keeps its own list of flags of convenience. This is where Saint Kitts and Nevis stands on the current lists:
- Paris MoU (Europe and Canada): black list, rank 60 of 69, performance list valid July 1, 2026 to July 6, 2027.
- Tokyo MoU (Asia Pacific): low performance, inspections and detentions 2022 to 2024.
- ITF: listed as a flag of convenience, 2025 list.
- MLC 2006: ratified 21 Feb 2012.
These lists count detentions, not contracts. A white list flag can still sit under a bad SEA, and a black list flag tells you how much backing to expect from the administration when something goes wrong on board. The current rating of every flag we cover stands on the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag page, and the app report names MLC 2006 plus the flag at the top of every check, with the same rating next to it.
Source note
ILO NORMLEX ratification register for MLC 2006 (Saint Kitts and Nevis, February 21, 2012); the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention, 2006) Regulations 2013; SKANReg Maritime Circular MC/51/13, Revision 2, May 2014; the registry contact page; Paris MoU performance lists valid July 1, 2026 to July 6, 2027; Tokyo MoU Annual Report 2024, Table 8; ITF list of FOC registries 2025. Flag facts verified September 1, 2026. This article is editorial context for working seafarers, not legal advice.
FAQ
Has Saint Kitts and Nevis ratified MLC 2006?
Yes. The ratification was registered on February 21, 2012. The Convention is implemented through the Merchant Shipping Act and the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention, 2006) Regulations 2013.
Who runs the Saint Kitts and Nevis ship register?
The St. Kitts and Nevis International Ship Registry, SKANReg, administered by the office of the Registrar of Ships at York House, Western Road, Romford, England, acting for the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Is Saint Kitts and Nevis a flag of convenience?
Yes. The ITF lists the register as a flag of convenience on its 2025 list. The flag also stands on the Paris MoU black list, rank 60 of 69, on the performance list valid July 2026 to July 2027, and at low performance in the Tokyo MoU region.
How do I complain about conditions on a Saint Kitts and Nevis flagged ship?
Maritime Circular MC/51/13 sets the route: the on-board procedure first, then the Registrar's office in Romford by e-mail. In a foreign port, port state control and the ITF inspector apply MLC 2006 to the ship directly.
What does a black list flag mean for my contract?
Nothing in the wording, everything in the backing. Port state control inspects black list ships more often and detains them more often, and the flag administration has a record of ships it did not keep in order. Read the SEA twice and keep every payslip and rest hour record.
7SHORT1LONG® is a Seafarer Identity Brand. The flag on the stern is the owner's decision; what you wear on the gangway is yours. The sign on set was built for that day, and the seafarer hoodies for the cold watches after it.
YES, WE ARE CREW.
Gear for the watchSeafarer T-Shirts · Crew Best SellersBuild your Sign On Set · Build your Sailor Set
