By Nantoo Banerjee
It is surprising that the government took over three months’ time to issue a directive to Indian shipping companies to restrict operation through conflict-stricken waters in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz following lethal US attacks on a foreign vessel causing the death of three Indian mariners. Till last week, there were 13 Indian flag bearing vessels operating in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. They were carrying roughly 622 Indian seafarers. Going by the latest reports, there are 233 seamen on board Indian merchant ships in the Gulf of Oman and 329 seafarers on board Indian vessels in the Persian Gulf. In addition, a large number of Indians are deployed on non-Indian merchant ships crossing the strait, making India highly exposed to the US-Iran geopolitical standoff.
Merchant navy jobs are widely acknowledged as one of the toughest and most physically and mentally demanding professions in the world. Far from a smooth adventure, it involves prolonged isolation, extreme working hours, and genuine occupational hazards, especially when sailing through a conflict zone. While a government can issue directives and guidelines to shipowners and agents from its own country, it has no jurisdiction over foreign flag bearers sailing in the open sea or outside its littoral waters. Interestingly, the Indian Director General of Shipping’s directive to Indian shipping companies came after the country’s external affairs minister raised with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the issue of the three Indian mariners killed in a US military strike on a foreign merchant vessel, flying the Palau flag, in the Gulf of Oman. Palau is an archipelago nation in Micronesia in the Western Pacific Ocean. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up the matter with the United States President Donald Trump during their brief meeting during the G-7 summit in Paris.
The government said the use of lethal force against civilian shipping is unacceptable and warned that such actions undermined the safety and stability of international maritime commerce in a sensitive region. Because of escalating tensions and recent blockades in the region, several vessels—including the Palau-flagged MT Settebello, MT Marivex, and MT Jalveer—had faced security incidents. The first of the three vessels was a tanker, Marivex, carrying 24 Indian seafarers. It was disabled by US forces on June 8, though all crew members were rescued safely. The second carrier, another Palau-flagged tanker named Settebello, was struck on June 10 killing three of the 24 Indian sailors aboard.
The third vessel, Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker carrying 20 Indian crew members, was attacked the next day. Incidentally, since the conflict began on February 28, Iran and the US have carried out over 46 known attacks on international shipping lines, resulting in the deaths of at least 61 seafarers. They include over 40 Iranian seafarers killed during the initial strikes and the US/Israeli port blockades. The US military had heavily enforced its naval blockade in June, targeting commercial vessels transporting Iranian oil, including the Palau-flagged MT Settebello in the Sea of Oman.
Although there is no definitive aggregated global database detailing the total number of merchant mariners killed in disputed or conflict waters, the Red Sea crisis alone may have led to dozens of such incidents and fatalities from direct hostile actions in recent years. Houthi militant-led strikes on commercial shipping resulted in many deaths among merchant crews, sinking several vessels such as the Eternity C. Disputed waters present severe chokepoint stresses and kinetic risks to global trade. The most critical flashpoints centre around the West Asia conflict, escalations in the South China Sea, and retaliatory blockades that have severely crippled merchant shipping routes and global supply chains. The West Asia conflict led to underwater mine laying by Iran, drone and missile strikes on vessels and port level blockades by Iranian forces. The Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea linking the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean, a vital artery for merchant shipping, remains highly volatile.
Geopolitical posturing continues to escalate in Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, making these waters a major flashpoint. The Chinese Coast Guard regularly conducts special maritime patrols in waters near Taiwan, contacting merchant ships and asserting jurisdiction in areas Taipei considers its own. Taiwan has actively instructed commercial vessels to disregard calls from Chinese Coast Guard vessels, creating a high-stress “grey-zone” operational environment for merchant mariners. In the Panama Canal, supply chain security has been heavily impacted by sovereign disputes over crucial chokepoints.
The Panama Supreme Court had revoked operational contracts previously held by a Hong Kong-based firm. In retaliation, China has heavily delayed and detained Panama-registered commercial ships at Chinese ports. This standoff directly threatens maritime flows in the Americas and has led to a cascading series of trade and logistical frictions. In the Yellow Sea, the maritime boundary between China and South Korea remains disputed, with temporary arrangements calcifying into permanent deadlock. Chinese “grey-zone” enforcement and overlapping claims create operational friction for merchant ships transiting these highly economically active waters.
Merchant shipping through all these international waters could be risky for the lives of seafarers, especially for India’s large seafaring workforce numbering over 320,000 personnel. India is among the world’s top three suppliers of trained seafarers. India’s maritime workforce had grown by nearly 170 percent over the past decade. Indian seafarers are deployed across international waters, including on LNG carriers, tankers, and offshore ships. Approximately 18,000 Indian seafarers serve on ships navigating the conflict-inflicted Gulf region and the Strait of Hormuz. Maritime bodies like the Forward Seafarers Union of India and the government actively coordinate with the Indian Navy and international agencies to strengthen protection and issue vigilance advisories for crews in high-risk waters.
Incidentally, Indian seafarers are major contributors to the nation’s foreign exchange earnings, accounting for nearly $10 billion in annual remittances. The country’s maritime workforce remains a highly reliable and silent pillar of this external sector. A US-Iran peace deal should come as good news for all maritime workers in the region although Iran-laid sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz present a major, ongoing hurdle to restoring global shipping. Both the US and Iran should now work together to clean up the underwater mines. As mines remain hidden or drift, major operators and insurers are treating the waterway as highly volatile. Finding and removing advanced Iranian sea mines—such as the seafloor-mounted Maham series—could take weeks to months, leaving many operators stranded. As for India, it remains a fundamental responsibility of the government to ensure the safety of Indian seamen in the troubled Iranian waters now. (IPA Service)
