Live updates: Follow the latest news on the Iran war
There is little doubt that the crisis caused by Iran’s threatening of civilian shipping the Strait of Hormuz is now a global one. However, the clamour surrounding energy shortages, market fluctuations and disrupted supply chains can obscure the price being paid by one of the most vulnerable communities in the eye of the storm – the estimated 20,000 seafarers trapped in the Gulf.
The UN’s International Maritime Organisation says there have been more than a dozen attacks on the estimated 3,000 vessels in the strait. These strikes have claimed the lives of at least 10 seafarers since the Israeli-US bombing of Iran that began last month. Fully loaded tankers have been hit by Iranian weapons, including a Kuwaiti-flagged oil vessel off the coast of the UAE last week.
It is a dangerous situation that the UN has described as unprecedented in the post-Second World War era. This is not hyperbole. Crews are running low on food and fresh water, and many are feeling the mental and emotional strain. One tanker captain spoke to The National recently and said “vessel crews are feeling distressed and helpless onboard”.
It is a cruel and unjust situation for these workers, whose contribution to the global economy is matched only by their support for families back home. The personal remittances of overseas Filipino seafarers alone last year increased to $7.13 billion, according to data from the Philippines’ central bank. Many of these workers now face acute danger from Iranian attacks as well the chronic threat posed by sickness, malnutrition and stress.
This cannot go on indefinitely, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps should not be the arbiter of who gets to go home and who doesn’t. Nearly three weeks ago, 115 IMO member states backed a UAE-drafted motion condemning Iran for its “egregious attacks” on neighbouring countries and disruption of commercial shipping. This was the most co-sponsors for a proposal in the organisation’s history.
Gulf countries are trying to help in other ways, with the UN describing how some ships are being resupplied with food, water and fuel by companies operating out of Saudi Arabia and Oman. The International Chamber of Shipping and the International Transport Workers’ Federation have both held talks with the UAE and other Gulf nations on stabilising conditions on trapped vessels, speeding up crew changes and disembarking seafarers with medical problems.
But as vessels move around the Gulf seeking secure locations in the hope that the war ends soon, damage is already being done to this vital global network. The IMO’s director of maritime safety, Damien Chevallier, has warned that if seafarers do not feel safe “then it will be difficult to attract the next generation to meet what are expanding needs”, adding that “without seafarers there can be no global trade, which the world’s economies depend on”. Halting Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz cannot come soon enough for seafarers and the millions of others' whose lives have been upended.
