IMO Secretariat submitted documents to LEG 113 listing fraudulently registered ships verified by the individual States with S&P Global. The number of ships flying a false flag has increased since the previous session of the Committee. As of 6th February 2026 there are 529 ships falsely flying the flag of a country. More information on the ships concerned can be found on GISIS in the module on Ship and Company Particulars, based on information provided by S&P Global. Of these falsely flagged ships, 356 are not classed by any classification society.
The secretariat’s table shows significant false‑flag counts attributed to Comoros (84), Guyana (74), Guinea (39), Aruba (35), Curaçao (32) and additional more countries listed. Although the number of Comoros falsely flagged ships has increased by 800% since last year, no fraudulent registry has been associated with the country.
There are total 39 Countries in the table given in the table listing total 529 vessels.
Communications to the Organization on fraudulent registration matters by countries are
- Kingdom of the Netherlands regarding Sint Maarten
- France regarding Matthew Island
- Malawi
- Timor-Leste
- United Kingdom regarding Bermuda
- Benin
- The Gambia
- Botswana
- Mali
- Guinea
- Tonga
- Comoros