The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) condemns the latest attacks and seizures targeting civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, calling on all parties/warring states to immediately cease the use of commercial shipping as an instrument of war.
Reports indicate that in the past 24 hours, three civilian vessels have been attacked and two seized by Iran, with a further vessel seized by the United States of America.
Responding to the escalating attacks, ITF General Secretary Stephen Cotton said:
"Commercial shipping has become a theatre of this war, and civilian seafarers – ‘key workers’ – are becoming primary casualties."
"Three attacks and two seizures by Iran. One seizure by the United States. These are not accidents, not collateral damage, these are deliberate acts against civilian workers who have no part in this conflict and no power to escape it."
Since the war began, the ITF's Seafarers' Support and Inspectorate teams have received 1,900 requests for assistance from seafarers in the Persian Gulf and their families. Around half of all enquiries relate to pay and contractual entitlements, approximately 20% are requests for repatriation, and around 10% concern vessels running low on food, water or fuel. To date, the ITF has assisted in the repatriation of 450 seafarers from the region.
"Seafarers are not soldiers,” said Cotton. “They are workers largely from the Global South, far from home, carrying the world's cargo on behalf of all our economies. They did not start this war. They cannot end it. Yet they are being used as pawns, as leverage, as instruments of geopolitical pressure by states that know full well what international law requires of them.
The ITF is sending a clear message to shipowners: do not gamble with seafarers' lives. No cargo, no contract, no commercial pressure is worth a seafarer's life. Until there is genuine, guaranteed safety, no vessel should be transiting this war zone with civilian crew aboard.
The ITF demands the immediate release of all detained seafarers and vessels, an immediate halt to all attacks on civilian shipping, and that states party to this conflict uphold their obligations under international law to protect civilian maritime workers.
The human cost of the ongoing crisis is mounting, and the impact of sustained fear, uncertainty and threat on the mental health and wellbeing of seafarers caught in this conflict cannot be underestimated. Many have been stranded for weeks, unable to leave, uncertain of their rights, and cut off from their families – with no end in sight.
“Behind every one of the 1,900 requests we’ve received is a seafarer who is stranded and desperate for help. These seafarers have names, families and rights, and it is a damning indictment that we have to remind anyone of that fact," said Cotton.
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