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When the crew on board a small fishing vessel offshore from Dubai saw a coast guard speedboat racing through the darkness, they prepared for the worst, hoisting an iron shield on the bridge in an improvised attempt to guard against potential gunfire.

Their vessel, the Meigou-4, sailed from Iran to United Arab Emirates waters every day to meet another boat with a motorised hose pipe to draw out its cargo of Iranian fuel - a process known as ship-to-ship transfer that is a fundamental part of a vast smuggling network that  generates  each year. 

A shadow fleet of ships operating in legal and regulatory grey zones delivers much of the world's oil from countries under international sanctions and is linked to other risky or illicit activities that may threaten the stability of global trade.

The dark fleet is no longer fringe. These vessels now represent of global oil tanker traffic, according to industry analysts.

A loophole in global maritime law enables shipowners to sidestep labor protections and safety rules by registering their vessels under flags of convenience, a practice linked with abuse of crews, according to watchdogs.

Every merchant ship must register under a flag state, subjecting it to that country's laws and determining which nation is responsible for enforcing safety, labour and environmental standards on the ship, no matter where it sails.

The leader of the island nation of Palau, whose ship registration system has come under fire for allowing rogue companies to fly its flag, has pledged to improve oversight of vessels to comply with international regulations.

Palau is grappling with gaps in monitoring and enforcement, particularly around vessel abandonments and "dark fleet" operations, President Surangel Whipps told Context on the sidelines of the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, France, in June.

When coast guard officers boarded junior seafarer Omkar Pawar’s ship off of Trinidad and Tobago in 2020, one of them pointed a gun at his face.

“They searched the ship. After two days, they found 450 kilograms of cocaine in the tank,” said Pawar.

Pawar and the rest of the crew were jailed and interrogated in a Trinidadian detention center for 15 days. The ship’s captain and second officer were later prosecuted.