Crew agency licence

A crew agency licence is the authorization a private seafarer recruitment and placement service must hold to operate in a country that has ratified MLC 2006. Standard A1.4 requires each such service to be licensed or certified, to charge no recruitment fee to the seafarer (other than the cost of the statutory medical, the seafarer’s book, and a passport), and to maintain financial-protection insurance that compensates a seafarer for loss if the agency or shipowner defaults. Flag and port states verify the licence chain during MLC inspection, and using an unlicensed agency in a non-ratifying state is a documented detention risk. The licence is issued and policed by the seafarer-supply state, not the flag state.