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<\/p>\nAt anchor in the Persian Gulf, Abhijit Chopra found out about the US-Iran peace deal when his phone lit up with messages from family and friends. The captain of a crude oil tanker, he had to temper his excitement. There were no signs of celebration from nearby vessels, and no ships making haste towards the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Chopra and his 21-strong crew have been trapped since the war began in late February. At the beginning, they struggled with fear and uncertainty, which ebbed into boredom and a constant battle not to let negative thoughts set in. For more than 120 days they have waited, dining together and bonding by singing old Hindi songs at karaoke. In early March, Chopra and his crew \u2014 all of whom were Indian, aside from one Ukrainian \u2014 celebrated Holi, a major Hindu festival, onboard the tanker. They painted each other\u2019s foreheads with turmeric powder taken from their kitchen.<\/p>\n
Signs that the strait might reopen came and went. That\u2019s why this time, Chopra didn\u2019t overreact. \u201cWhen they said the Strait of Hormuz was open, we were a bit optimistic that the vessel might transit,\u201d he said. But when there was fresh news of attacks on tankers, they realized they were going to be stuck a bit longer. \u201cThere was a little bit of disappointment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Around 8,000 seafarers who are not from the region remain stranded in the gulf, according to the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency that\u2019s tasked with regulating and coordinating global shipping. Sailors have been left to the mercy of geopolitical forces and distant diplomatic negotiations, working to keep their ships in service as missiles and drones passed overhead. Their fate is a stark reminder that the global economy is heavily dependent on individuals, who at times have to go to extraordinary lengths and face incredible risks to keep trade flowing.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, we are just ordinary people. We are fathers, we are sons, we are husbands who are staying for months out at sea carrying out a duty,\u201d Chopra said. \u201cAnd we are doing this because somebody has to do this and the world\u2019s goods, economies depend on all this seafaring job.\u201d<\/p>\n Oceangoing ships are responsible for moving more than 80% of global goods, or about 70% in total value, a World Bank estimate<\/a> shows. Today, nearly 2.6 million seafarers serve onboard the world\u2019s fleet of more than 85,000 merchant vessels, according to a joint report issued by BIMCO<\/a>, a trade association for the shipping industry, and the International Chamber of Shipping. The majority are recruited from lower-income countries, often in Asia, with the Philippines and India providing around 30% of the global workforce.<\/p>\n Working on ships can be difficult and dangerous, with crews often away from home for months at a time. Seafarers\u2019 conditions at sea are largely governed by the Maritime Labour Convention<\/a>, an International Labour Organization treaty that outlines work and welfare rights, and touches on protections for them in extraordinary scenarios.<\/p>\n But for a global industry as decentralized as shipping, enforcement and compliance is patchy. Large shipowners are often compliant, but seafarers on vessels owned by smaller companies may not be offered even those basic set of rights, top executives at support groups have told Bloomberg News.<\/p>\n \u201cGlobal shipping is almost set up to provide multiple, different channels for ownership and operation, where I can be a shipowner sitting in London and flag it to Liberia and register it in Greece and I sit back and earn revenue from the ship,\u201d said Ben Bailey, program director for the Mission to Seafarers, a welfare charity for maritime workers. \u201cIt is the seafarers that risk falling through the gaps and not have their rights met.\u201d<\/p>\n When crises and conflicts occur, those rights are tested to the extreme.<\/p>\n Raman Kapoor, the captain of a Suezmax tanker, oversaw several runs in the gulf in late 2025 and early 2026, and had just 10 days left on his tour when the war broke out on Feb. 28. The ship had just finished loading a cargo of crude oil at the Iraqi port of Basra when the onshore pilot came running to Kapoor to tell him that ships in the Strait of Hormuz had been attacked.<\/p>\n A call soon came from his employers, and he was ordered to leave port and headed to an anchorage out in the gulf. \u201cThe entire scenario changed,\u201d Kapoor said. \u201cOur processes, what\u2019s our next port, the ship\u2019s schedule, everything changed. All of a sudden we found that we were inside a war zone and there was no safe way out.\u201d<\/p>\n Service contracts for sailors typically range between four to nine months. In a war that\u2019s been going on for more than four months, that means that many of those seafarers trapped in the Persian Gulf are at or near the end of their contracts and should be relieved by fresh crew. In some cases, sailors are also allowed to request that they\u2019re evacuated from conflict zones.<\/p>\n However, keeping a large commercial vessel operational requires around 22 people, and ship operators need to carefully manage and time mariners\u2019 departures and make sure that there are replacements.<\/p>\n A sailor\u2019s pay often takes what\u2019s set out in a global bargaining framework<\/a> as guidance, and those serving in war zones can get a boost to their pay\u2014 in some cases, inflating their monthly salaries to as high as $30,000 \u2014 but it was difficult for crewing agencies and ship operators to find mariners willing to fly into the gulf.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/asian-nations-are-biggest-suppliers-of-seafarers-bloomberg.jpg\")
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