UP to a thousand ships flagged to the Cook Islands, Palau, Sierra Leone and Togo will be targeted for safety, maintenance and seafarer welfare inspections across the Mediterranean Sea in the coming eight weeks by an army of inspectors from the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), seafarers' unions and port authorities.

'Substandard shipping in the Mediterranean Sea is driving down seafarers' wages and conditions, it's endangering the lives of crew and risking our environment,' said ITF Inspectorate Coordinator Steve Trowsdale.