On 26 January, staff in an office in Mumbai received an urgent e-mail from a crew member aboard a tanker off the coast of Singapore.
The email, purportedly written on behalf of five colleagues aboard the tanker sailing under the name Beeta, contained a litany of complaints: crew members, it was alleged, had not been paid and were being treated "like animals"; and provisions were running low.
The staff in Mumbai worked for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), the world's leading organisation representing seafarers, and were used to dealing with complaints from all corners of the globe.
But what caught their eye was the fact that the emails hadn't just been copied to multiple ITF offices, but also to sanctions enforcement bodies in several countries.
"The vessel is sanctioned and blacklisted," the sailor wrote.
