Indian Captain: 8,000 Seafarers 'Pawns' in Gulf War
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- Capt. Raman Kapoor was stranded for 2½ months with 23 crew on an oil tanker anchored in the Persian Gulf after war erupted Feb. 28, counting more than 140 missiles flying overhead in a single half-hour stretch
- At least 14 seafarers unconnected to warring countries have died, half of them Indian per the Forward Seamen's Union of India, including three Indian mariners killed in mid-June when the U.S. struck the MT Settebello, accusing it of evading a naval blockade
- At least 8,000 seafarers on hundreds of ships remain stranded inside the Persian Gulf according to the IMO, as Iran warned vessels must use Iranian-controlled routes or face 'forceful consequences'
- The IMO launched an evacuation plan last week but was forced to pause it after Iran struck the container ship Ever Lovely near the Omani side of the strait
- At Doha talks, Oman proposed voluntary tolls for ships passing through its waters, Iran demanded mandatory tolling, and the U.S. demanded none, highlighting the impasse over control of the strait
- Kapoor told CBC the shipping community feels invisible: 'The world talks about us only when they see a dead body. After that they keep quiet until the next body comes'
Why it matters: The Strait of Hormuz carries 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, and the IMO's paused evacuation plan leaves thousands of civilian mariners — half of them Indian — trapped in an active war zone with no safe egress, while competing claims by Iran, Oman, and the U.S. over routing and tolls show no diplomatic off-ramp is imminent.
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