US-Iran war has stranded up to 20,000 seafarers, mostly Indian and Filipino crews, with none knowing when the nightmare will end<\/p>\n
The panicked crew of a cargo ship broadcast a distress signal late on Monday night from their location in the strait of Hormuz. About 20 nautical miles north of the coast of Oman, the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a blackout in the engine room and a fire in the accommodation area.<\/p>\n
The crew scrambled to put out the blaze and called for help from nearby vessels. When they managed to disembark from the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged ship on Tuesday morning, they realised the third engineer was missing. Days later, he is yet to be found.<\/p>\n
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre is investigating but has not yet officially confirmed the origin of the projectile, although analysts at the maritime intelligence company Windward noted: \u201cPrior kinetic attacks at this exact location have been Iranian in origin, though Iran denies involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the preceding 24 hours two other vessels in the region, a large- and a medium-sized oil tanker, had reported near-misses.<\/p>\n
The flurry of incidents casts a spotlight on the danger facing the thousands of seafarers who remain trapped in the Gulf as the US-led war on Iran extends into its sixth month. What should have been a normal journey when they passed through the strait and entered the Gulf back in February has turned into a long and stressful waiting game.<\/p>\n
Iran has in effect blockaded the waterway, trapping 20,000 seafarers for weeks on end and inflicting a huge psychological toll. One seafarer stuck in the Gulf told the Guardian in the early weeks of the conflict of the \u201cimpossible\u201d situation they and their crew were in, which had contributed to another sailor having a breakdown.<\/p>\n
As the war has dragged on, sailors have become casualties: 17 seafarers have died since hostilities began, the majority following Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n
The crews stuck in the strait have had their hopes of departure raised several times, before being dashed. April\u2019s ceasefire and the peace deal signed in June by Washington and Tehran both broke down shortly after being announced.<\/p>\n
Several dozen oil and gas tankers seized the brief window offered by the memorandum of understanding (MOU), the ceasefire deal signed by both sides, to exit through the channel, but not all made it through in time. There are still 6,000 seafarers on 500 vessels, encompassing all types of ships, trapped in the Gulf, according to the UN\u2019s International Maritime Organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to remember that these are innocent people who are trained to do the work, that they are not trained for combat, and the vessels are not prepared to defend themselves against missiles and drones,\u201d said the IMO\u2019s secretary-general, Arsenio Dominguez.<\/p>\n
For the crews stuck waiting to exit it is like being in \u201cprison\u201d, the head of one of India\u2019s maritime trade unions said. \u201cFor the guys who are on board, the question that arises is, when is this going to end? The uncertainty of the ongoing geopolitical tension is causing them stress,\u201d said Savio Ramos, general secretary of the Maritime Union of India, which represents merchant navy officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is like putting somebody in prison and not giving them freedom to move,\u201d added Ramos, a tanker captain with more than two decades of experience moving large oil carriers around the globe. \u201cYou don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, you don\u2019t what you\u2019re doing. It gets to you after some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most vessels \u2013 at least those with responsible owners \u2013 are receiving regular supplies of fresh water, food and other goods ferried by small boats from shore, yet most crews have no way of getting out of a perilous situation.<\/p>\n
Ramos said some of the union\u2019s members who wanted to return home had been able to do so, provided other senior officers were willing to enter the region and replace them.<\/p>\n