‘Vessels are becoming like jails’: Concern mounts for sailors stranded in Persian Gulf

NEW DELHI/MANILA – In little over 24 hours after bombs began raining down in West Asia on Feb 28, tragedy struck two homes in different corners of India.

A suspected missile attack on an oil tanker, Skylight, near Oman’s Khasab port on March 1 claimed two Indian victims.

Mr Ashish Kumar, the captain of the vessel from Bihar state in east India, was killed after a direct hit on the vessel’s engine room caused a devastating fire.

Another crew member, Mr Dalip from Rajasthan state in the west, whose passport lists only one name, was reported missing and is now presumed dead.

In his village Khinvtana in Rajasthan, the 24-year-old’s ageing parents have yet to come to terms with their loss, with his shocked mother unable to eat and being admitted to the hospital because of weakness.

“How can a mother and father accept that their child is dead as long as they haven’t seen the body?” said Mr Devendra Singh, cousin of Mr Dalip, who lives in the same village. “The government should find out where he is. If he is alive, he should be brought back; if not, then his body,” he added.

This tragic story mirrors a far wider crisis that has unfolded in the Persian Gulf region. Several thousand sailors are stranded in the conflict zone and risk becoming easy targets for incoming missiles or drones. They also face fear, uncertainty and isolation at sea.

Most of them are from India and the Philippines, which, along with China, are among the world’s largest suppliers of international seafarers.

Government data shows that more than 23,000 Indian and 6,000 Filipino seafarers remain deployed in or near the Persian Gulf, including the Strait of Hormuz, where heightened tensions have effectively stalled vessel movements.

Many vessels are now anchored at sea or docked in ports, unable to proceed amid security risks.

This leaves crews in a prolonged state of limbo amid dwindling essential supplies and even restricted communication access to the outside world to avoid revealing their location, which could expose them to attacks.

At least three Indian sailors have been killed in missile or drone attacks on ships in West Asia and four others injured. An Indian captain of an oil tanker stranded aboard his vessel in the Strait of Hormuz near Dubai also died on March 18, following a suspected heart attack, as he was unable to receive medical attention.

A Filipino seafarer, Mr George Francis Miranda, also remains missing after the tugboat he was on was attacked while it was responding to a distressed vessel off the coast of Oman.

Danger lurks everywhere

For those on board, the wait has become psychologically taxing. “They are very anxious, uncertain of what could happen in the next few days,” said Ms Judy Domingo of the United Filipino Seafarers union.

This constant exposure to danger is taking a toll on their mental health. Ms Domingo said some seafarers have begun to isolate themselves, even from support networks trying to reach them.

Communication itself is fragile. Internet connectivity on board is often weak and intermittent, limiting most exchanges to short messages sent through platforms such as WhatsApp.

Mr Manoj Yadav, general secretary of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, has been in contact with more than 150 Indian sailors stuck on board vessels in or around Iran, and more than 100 in the wider Persian Gulf region.

He told The Straits Times that in many cases, especially in Iran, jammers seem to have been activated by the local port authorities to limit communication, including with family members. Port authorities and shipping companies have asked sailors not to share videos or photographs with anyone or speak with the media. “The vessels are becoming like jails,” he said.

ST was able to contact one Indian sailor in Iran, who declined to share his name or location because of security risks. Through brief messages on WhatsApp, he told ST on March 19 that he had been stuck in Iran since the start of the war.

He said he felt scared when the war broke out and “six to eight missiles” fell near his ship in just one hour. And while things have somewhat eased, attacks are still going on, with one missile landing 1km away from his ship on March 17.

Several other seafarers declined ST’s interview requests, while others did not respond at all – a reflection, Ms Domingo said, of both fear and restriction.

Still, photos and videos are trickling out. One such video from near Bandar Abbas in Iran – shared with Mr Yadav on WhatsApp on March 18 by an unnamed Indian sailor – shows thick smoke emanating from a ship nearby after a suspected missile attack on it on the same day.

“If bombing is happening less than 1.5 nautical miles away, no doubt there will be panic on board,” said Mr Yadav.

There are also concerns that if the war continues for another week or so, sailors aboard the vessels in the region could begin facing acute shortages of essentials such as food and water, which are typically stocked to last about a month.

Mr Yadav said he had already received messages from seafarers aboard three ships in the Persian Gulf indicating that food was running short and drinking water was being rationed.

Restricted access to phones or the internet has left families of seafarers worried.

For nearly a week at the start of March, Mr Mohammad Sakib’s anxious family was unable to speak with him. The 28-year-old, from northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, remains stuck on a ship off the coast of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

Since then, his brother Noorul Huda told ST that the family has been able to speak with him every few days on the captain’s Iranian phone number.

The calls last about 10 or 20 seconds each time, given the poor connectivity. “The (Indian) government should get him out safely as soon as possible,” he added.

What can governments do?

Repatriation efforts are under way, with more than 1,000 overseas Filipinos, including sailors, already brought home from West Asia.

But extracting seafarers from ships remains logistically complex, requiring safe ports, coordination with shipowners and available commercial flights.

With thousands of overseas workers also seeking to return, limited flight availability is another bottleneck.

“There are many factors to consider. We have to make sure they are safe,” Ms Domingo said.

The Philippine government is tracking thousands of Filipino seafarers in the region, and is working with shipowners and foreign counterparts to ensure their safety.

It has also stepped up assistance and repatriation efforts for those affected.

The Indian government is working with Iran to seek the safe passage of Indian-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

At least three such ships have already arrived in India, but an estimated 21 Indian-flagged ships with around 600 Indian sailors are still in the Persian Gulf region.

The government has also set up a helpline for seafarers and deployed its naval vessels to escort vessels to India after they have crossed the Strait of Hormuz.

But government roles can be limited, especially when sailors work for international flagged vessels with foreign owners and mixed crew members.

“In many cases, the owners are not ready to release the sailors to avoid abandoning their ships,” added Mr Yadav.

Exploitation of seafarers and a sanctioned vessel

On March 18, eight Indian sailors who survived the March 1 missile attack on Skylight returned to Mumbai with help from their Lucknow-based recruitment agency SKS Krishi Marine Services (OPC). Most of them are in their early 20s and were on their first assignment at sea.

According to a report in The Indian Express, many of the survivors did not know how to swim and wore life jackets to save their lives. As fire engulfed the vessel, they jumped into the sea with nothing but the clothes on their backs and were rescued by an Omani army boat.

Mr Dalip, who remains missing, earned just US$400 (S$513) each month, including overtime and leave pay. His pay was about a third of what the International Labour Organisation prescribes for someone in his role, reflecting widespread exploitation of seafarers from India and the Philippines.

Skylight, it also seems, did not have an active protection and indemnity insurance at the time of the attack. This essential insurance covers a shipowner’s legal liabilities, including those that may arise from injuries to its employees or their death while on duty aboard the ship.

Its previous annual insurance ran out on Jan 23 and a renewed insurance document was unavailable when ST contacted SKS Krishi Marine Services, the oil tanker’s recruitment firm in India, on March 20. “I still have not got it and will update later,” its director Sumit Kant Singh told ST.

The absence of such a cover complicates the compensation process that Mr Dalip’s family will have to go through, said Mr Nathan Smith, an inspector with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).

The ITF is an international trade union federation of transport workers’ unions that has been looking into Mr Dalip’s case, as well as those of other sailors affected by the ongoing conflict.

His contract, which ST has seen, specifies that any compensation in case of death or injury while on duty would be dealt with in accordance with protection and indemnity insurance rules. It is not clear how much compensation Mr Dalip’s family will now receive, and under which rules.

“This is not only a regulatory issue,” Mr Smith told ST.

“There is a family behind this case who are now dealing with the reality that a seafarer has not returned home, and there remains uncertainty around whether the protections meant to exist in these circumstances were actually in place. That uncertainty should not exist in a system designed to protect seafarers.”

The Palau-flagged vessel Skylight was added to the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned vessels in December for being part of an alleged “shadow fleet” transporting Iranian oil to bypass American sanctions.

Credible insurance providers avoid covering sanctioned vessels because of the risk of secondary US sanctions, among other reasons. “It’s (therefore) very typical of these sanctioned vessels not to have valid certificates on board,” said Mr Smith.

Mr Dalip’s case, he noted, reflects a broader pattern of seafarers ending up working on vessels operating in high-risk and conflict-affected areas, often with layered ownership structures and unclear protections.

“When something goes wrong, the consequences are immediate and very real for the crew and their families... There must be a clear and enforceable mechanism to ensure that their family is supported and compensated without delay,” Mr Smith said. “Ensuring that those protections are in place, and that they can be relied upon in practice, is fundamental.

“The governments of India and the Philippines should also put pressure on manning agencies in their countries that continue to exploit seafarers and send them out with these shady companies and vessels.”