Twenty thousand seafarers aboard 1,600 vessels remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, and the men and women keeping global trade moving say the world has forgotten them.
IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez has given voice to their despair. “I spoke to a seafarer who had been trapped in the Persian Gulf for more than six weeks,” he said. “Aside from the exhaustion and toll on mental health of the crews, they feel invisible, that they are not valued.” His message to the international community was unambiguous: “The situation is not improving. I reiterate: there is no safe transit anywhere in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Damien Chevallier, director of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Division, noted in a recent UN interview: “There is no precedent for the stranding of so many seafarers in the modern age. It is a very scary situation, and one can only imagine the psychological stress they are under.” Chevallier warned that the long-term health of the industry is at stake, noting that if seafarers do not feel safe, it will be impossible to attract the next generation to the profession.
Today marks day 59 of the Hormuz crisis and day 890 of the Red Sea crisis – and the pace of naval enforcement shows no sign of slowing.
Over the weekend, US forces intercepted the 39,000 cu m LPG carrier Sevan in the Arabian Sea, a day after the vessel was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department as part of a sweeping action targeting Iran’s shadow fleet. The guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney escorted the vessel back toward Iranian waters after a Navy helicopter was deployed to intercept it. US Central Command said 37 vessels have now been redirected since the blockade began.
The Sevan, owned by Dubai-based Anka Energy and Logistics, had been tracked approaching the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said the vessel had transported Iranian propane and butane to Bangladesh as part of a network it described as “transporting billions of dollars worth of Iranian energy, oil and gas products.”
The interception is the latest move in Washington’s Operation Economic Fury. On 24 April, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned China’s Hengli Petrochemical – one of Iran’s largest crude oil customers – alongside approximately 40 shipping firms and 19 shadow fleet vessels. Since February 2025, OFAC has sanctioned more than 1,000 Iran-related persons, vessels and aircraft.
“Economic Fury is imposing a financial stranglehold on the Iranian regime, hampering its aggression in the Middle East, and helping to curtail its nuclear ambitions,” claimed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.