Strait of Hormuz: the seafarers paying the price of the US-Israeli war on Iran
Seafarers caught in the crossfire of the US-Israeli war on Iran are paying a growing human toll in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil passes.
According to the International Maritime Organization, 25 seafarers have died since February 28 across 129 recorded incidents, with Iran's Revolutionary Guards reporting further tanker fires in the strait on Sunday. Indian and Iranian crews have borne the heaviest losses of the war at sea, with 16 Indian and 44 Iranian seafarers among the dead - figures that reflect the multinational crews staffing the world's merchant fleet.
In March, the International Bargaining Forum struck a deal allowing crews to refuse to sail into designated danger zones without losing pay or contracts, a recognition that commercial shipping had become a target rather than collateral.
Legal experts point to UNCLOS Articles 38, 17 and 19, which protect transit and innocent passage through straits and territorial seas, but maritime expert Abdul Khalique says the framework is only as strong as its enforcement: 'enforcement is the weak link.'
