~20,000 Seafarers are paying for a war they didn’t want or choose.. We should all be ashamed..!!
Twenty thousand human beings.. Civilian workers.. People with families waiting for them at home are sitting on ships in the Persian Gulf right now, watching drones and missiles explode around them, rationing their food and water, and wondering if today is the day a supply boat finally reaches them..
The IMO has confirmed at least 10 seafarers have been killed in 29 attacks on commercial vessels since 28 February 2026.. Given that the attacks have continued well beyond that last confirmed count, the real figure may be higher..
And the rest of the world is watching..
So what is ACTUALLY happening with supplies..??
When you read that vessels in the Persian Gulf “are being resupplied with food, water and fuel by companies operating out of Saudi Arabia and Oman,” it sounds organised.. It sounds like there is a system in place..
It is most probably NOT..
By IMO’s own admission, it is not necessarily safer for those ships to remain in port, so the vessels are moving around the Gulf in search of secure locations where they can wait out the conflict, following the protocols of the shipping companies that own them..
There is no corridor agreement.. There is no flag identification system to protect small provision boats making runs to anchored ships.. There is no guarantee from any party to this conflict that a boat carrying rice, drinking water, and medicines to 24 stranded seafarers will not be targeted..
We know this because on 6 March 2026, a UAE-flagged salvage tug called the Mussafah 2 was dispatched to assist a container ship, the Safeen Prestige, which had already been hit by a projectile.. Two missiles struck the Mussafah 2, caught fire, and sank.. At least four seafarers were killed and three more, all Indonesian, went missing..
A salvage tug.. Sent to help a stricken vessel.. Blown out of the water..
We also know this because a tanker was struck by a sea drone while sitting at anchor near Kuwait, more than 800 kilometres from the strait.. The danger is not just at Hormuz.. It is wide, it is unpredictable, and it does not discriminate..
As per reports, ship management companies are moving their trapped vessels to whatever they judge to be the “nearest safe point” within the Gulf, and supply boats from Saudi and Omani ports are making runs when conditions allow..
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Ports (Mawani) launched a formal initiative to coordinate fuel, water, food, medicines, and crew change arrangements, and the IMO helped circulate contact details for these resupply companies to the industry.. That is a positive step and credit where it is due..
But it is improvised.. It is opportunistic.. It is driven by the goodwill of port authorities and the determination of ship managers, NOT by any formal international protection framework..
And the ITF’s General Secretary Stephen Cotton confirmed what many suspected: some ships ARE having challenges with food and water.. India’s seafarer welfare representatives went further, reporting that many sailors described ACUTE shortages, with some vessels forced to RATION supplies.. Not trim portions.. RATION..
The kind of rationing you do when you genuinely do not know when the next delivery is coming.. Communication with families back home is sporadic at best, due to internet disruptions and signal jamming across the region..
Let us talk about what international bodies have actually done
The IMO has been the most active international body, and credit must go to Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez for being vocal, visible, and direct.. He briefed the UN Security Council in what was the first time in the IMO’s 78-year history that its chief had addressed the Council on an active conflict zone..
He has developed an evacuation framework.. He has engaged with foreign ministers from more than 40 countries.. He has warned repeatedly that supplies are running short.. He called on all parties plainly: “My call is to release the seafarers because they are not at fault..”
But the IMO cannot send ships.. It cannot enforce anything.. It can only advocate, coordinate, and shame..
The UN Security Council..?? A Bahrain-led resolution demanding freedom of navigation through the strait, a resolution that 11 of 15 member states voted FOR, was VETOED by Russia and China.. Eleven countries said yes.. Two said no.. And 20,000 seafarers paid the price for that no..
The ILO issued a statement of “grave concern” on 24 April 2026 through its Special Tripartite Committee, urging all member states to take urgent action and stressing that the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 remains FULLY applicable even during crises..
They also raised something that does not get enough attention: the right of seafarers to FREELY CHOOSE whether to work in high-risk areas, without fear of negative consequences for their future employment.. That is a real issue when companies struggling to find replacement crew are under pressure to find volunteers for a war zone..
The ITF has received more than 1,000 emails from stranded seafarers asking for help and repatriation.. They have been vocal.. They have been consistent.. But like the IMO and the ILO, they cannot compel the parties with guns to do anything..
And the parties with the guns..??
One told the world’s shipping industry to “show some guts” and sail through the strait, claiming “there’s nothing to be afraid of..” This at a time when ships are still being fired upon, and a salvage tug had already been blown out of the water, going to help a stricken vessel..
And separately, a post declaring the goal was to “open the Hormuz Strait, take the oil and make a fortune..”
Not a humanitarian corridor.. Not a supply framework.. Not a single public statement about the 20,000 seafarers rationing their food and water..
The other party has been charging transit tolls of over $1 million per ship, with its parliament moving to LEGISLATE this as a permanent revenue mechanism.. So the party that controls one side of this strait has turned 20,000 trapped civilian workers into a revenue stream..
These are not numbers.. These are people..
Fleet Management Limited’s CEO Capt. Rajalingam Subramaniam said something that should be on the wall of every government involved in this standoff: “Mariners who did not sign up to be in a warlike area also need to be respected so that they do not become the unintended collateral..”
UNINTENDED collateral.. He is being polite.. Because at this point, with 2 months of conflict gone, with supply shortages confirmed, with a salvage tug already sunk while going to help, it is becoming very hard to call this unintended..
These are the people who move 90% of everything the world trades.. They were somewhere in the Persian Gulf doing their job when a war started around them.. They did not choose to be there.. They cannot leave.. And the parties waging this war cannot agree on something as basic as letting a boat carrying food and water reach them without the risk of getting blown up..
Ok, so what needs to happen NOW
This is NOT complicated.. This is a choice..
The parties to this conflict need to agree on ONE thing, just one thing, that has nothing to do with oil, tolls, nuclear programmes or geopolitical leverage: a protected, verified, internationally monitored humanitarian supply corridor within the Persian Gulf, specifically for provision runs to stranded vessels..
Not a full transit corridor through the strait.. Not a political resolution.. Just this: supply boats carrying food, water, and medicine to trapped ships must not be attacked.. Full stop..
The IMO has the evacuation framework ready, built on the existing Traffic Separation Scheme through the strait.. The Saudi ports authority has the chandlers and the contact lists ready.. Oman has the geography and the willingness.. The flag states of the 20,000 affected seafarers have every reason to push for this..
What is missing is the political will of the parties WITH THE GUNS to agree to it..
The IMO’s Damien Chevallier, Director of the Maritime Safety Division, said it plainly: “There is no precedent for the stranding of so many seafarers in the modern age..”
He is right.. And until the parties to this war agree to protect even a simple supply run, every government, every military command, every veto-wielding Security Council member, and every administration charging transit tolls while civilian workers ration their drinking water needs to look hard at what they are doing..
Or more accurately, what they are NOT doing..
These seafarers keep the world’s trade moving.. The least the world owes them is a boat with food and water that is not going to get blown up on the way..
We should ALL be ashamed that this is even a question in 2026..
If anyone is in contact with any of the stranded vessels or working on the supply and welfare side of this crisis, I would like to hear from you..
