Up to 400 Ships, 6,000 Seafarers Still Stranded in Gulf as Hormuz Crisis Persists: UN
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — WEB DESK: Up to 400 ships carrying around 6,000 seafarers remain unable to safely leave the Persian Gulf, the United Nations maritime agency has said, warning that the crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz remains unresolved six months after the Middle East conflict began.
International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez issued the assessment on August 28, saying thousands of seafarers continued to live and work in conditions of heightened risk and uncertainty.
“While some ships and their crews have been able to leave the Persian Gulf, up to 400 ships carrying around 6,000 seafarers have been unable to depart safely since the conflict began,” Dominguez said in the IMO statement.
The conflict began on February 28, meaning the maritime disruption has now persisted for roughly six months.
IMO Says Hormuz Crisis Remains Unresolved
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints, connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and international shipping routes.
Dominguez said the situation there remained “unresolved” despite some vessels successfully departing the Gulf.
The disruption has major implications beyond the ships directly affected.
The IMO warned that interruptions to supply chains involving fuel, fertilizers and other essential commodities could have serious short- and long-term consequences for communities and economies worldwide.
The agency’s latest figures also show that conditions have improved from an earlier stage of the crisis. Current reporting says the number previously stood at around 2,000 ships carrying approximately 20,000 seafarers, before some vessels managed to leave the region.
Nevertheless, hundreds of ships remain unable to safely depart.
At Least 70 Shipping Attacks Verified
The maritime crisis has also carried a human cost.
The IMO says it has verified at least 70 attacks on international shipping since February 28, resulting in the deaths of 19 seafarers.
Those figures refer specifically to incidents verified by the UN maritime agency and should not automatically be interpreted as a complete count of every reported maritime-security incident during the conflict.
The continuing danger has left thousands of crew members living aboard ships in uncertain conditions while operators assess whether safe passage is possible.
Dominguez described the impact on the seafarers caught in the crisis as particularly distressing and urged governments, the shipping industry, the IMO and the wider UN system to work together on practical solutions.
Shipping Traffic Remains Far Below Normal
The latest warning comes as vessel traffic through Hormuz continues to fluctuate sharply.
Preliminary ship-tracking data from Kpler showed only seven commodity vessels transited the strait on Thursday, August 27, compared with 17 the previous day and a 10-day average of 15. Four of those vessels exited the strait while three entered.
The figures underline the difference between the waterway being technically passable for some ships and the restoration of normal commercial navigation.
Ship-tracking figures can also change because some vessels switch off their Automatic Identification System transponders, making complete real-time traffic counts difficult.
IMO Calls for Unhindered Navigation
The IMO Council adopted a resolution in July calling for protection of vital shipping lanes.
According to the agency, the resolution reaffirmed that transit passage through straits used for international navigation must not be threatened, obstructed, denied or suspended. It called for a coordinated and sustainable return to unhindered navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Dominguez said renewed political will and cooperation were required to achieve that goal.
The IMO chief also placed the Hormuz situation within a broader deterioration in maritime security stretching from the Black Sea to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Why Hormuz Disruption Matters Globally
The Strait of Hormuz is especially important because Gulf energy exporters rely heavily on the narrow passage to reach global markets.
The IMO-linked reporting estimates that roughly one-fifth of global oil trade normally passes through the waterway.
As a result, prolonged disruption can affect tanker availability, insurance and freight costs, energy prices and supply chains well beyond the Middle East.
For major energy-importing economies in Asia, including Pakistan, India, China, Japan and South Korea, stability in Gulf shipping is particularly important because of their dependence on imported crude oil, petroleum products or liquefied natural gas from the region.
Important Clarification: Ships Are Stranded in the Gulf, Not All Inside the Strait
A crucial geographical distinction applies to the headline figure.
The IMO did not say that all 400 ships are physically stranded inside the narrow Strait of Hormuz itself.
Its official statement says up to 400 ships carrying about 6,000 seafarers have been unable to safely depart the Persian Gulf since the conflict began.
Express Urdu itself highlights this distinction, noting that the vessels should be understood as stranded across the broader Gulf region rather than all being concentrated within the strait.
That clarification matters because the Strait of Hormuz is the maritime exit from the Persian Gulf. Ships waiting at ports, anchorages or waters elsewhere inside the Gulf can effectively be trapped by unsafe passage conditions without being physically located in the strait.
With maritime traffic still far below normal and thousands of seafarers unable to safely leave the region, the IMO says restoring predictable freedom of navigation will require coordinated political and shipping-industry action.
