Banning, formally a refusal of access order, is the Paris MoU's measure of last resort: the ship is barred from entering any port or anchorage in the entire region. It is triggered by repeated detentions, normally three within 36 months for a ship on a black-listed flag or three within 24 months on a grey-listed flag. The order applies region-wide, from Ireland to Russia and Canada's Atlantic coast, not just in the port that issued it.
The bans escalate. The first refusal of access lasts at least 3 months. A second lasts at least 12 months, a third at least 24, and a ship banned a fourth time can be refused access permanently. A ship that jumps a detention, sailing without authorisation or ignoring the conditions of a repair-yard voyage, can be banned without waiting for a third detention.
How it shows up in practice
The mechanism is bookkeeping, not discretion. Each detention is recorded in THETIS against the ship and her flag's list position; when the counting rule is met, the detaining authority issues the order and the ban is published on the Paris MoU website with the ship's name and company. Lifting it is not automatic either. After the ban period expires, the company must apply, and the ship must pass an expanded inspection, at the company's expense, in an agreed port before access is restored. Because the trigger is the flag's list position as much as the ship's record, a reflagging decision can change how close a ship stands to the threshold. How detentions accumulate and what each one costs on the way is covered in detention costs and consequences.
What it means for operators
A banned ship is shut out of one of the world's densest trading areas, and the listing is public, so the commercial damage extends to sister ships under the same management. For an operator, the relevant arithmetic starts at the first detention, not the third: every detention already raises the Ship Risk Profile and shortens the leash. Treating each pre-arrival check as the thing that keeps the counter at zero is the sober response, and it is the discipline Fleetward's PSC readiness workflow is designed to support.