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Not really a high-seas problem, onboard a ship the regulations of the flag country apply. However, flag countries are picked to be very lax in both laws and their enforcement.

E.g. you will not find any carribean cruise ship from the big lines that is under a US flag.

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The ships get the flags of small island-countries, where there are almost no laws protecting the crew and only loosely regulated laws about things like gambling, taxes and so on, things these companies misuse to garner profits.

I believe there are 0 US flagged ships that are part of the cruise industry that in the U.S.

Exactly, high seas and maritime law means you’re under the jurisdiction of the flag country (if you have one), and US law is very lax in what cruise lines have to report when it happens outside US jurisdiction.

According to WaPo’s report last year, the most commonly alleged crime is sexual assault (with a third of the victims being minors), and it is not required to be reported. Considering passengers have to put up with that, I struggle to imagine what many crew members have to deal with.

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