The ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf and cannot pass through the strait due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Iran borders the strait on its northern side and has said it will only allow “non-hostile” ships through.
Before the conflict, around 150 ships passed through the waterway each day, but now only four or five do so.
On Monday, two Chinese-flagged cargo ships had reportedly embarked on a four- to six-hour journey through the strait to the Gulf of Oman and safer waters outside the war zone.
Attacks on ships
Since the start of the conflict a month ago, there have been 19 attacks on ships in the strait, according to the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London.
Seven sailors have been killed, eight wounded and five reported missing since the Israeli-US bombing of Iran began, prompting Iranian attacks across the Gulf.
On Tuesday, a fully loaded oil tanker was hit off the coast of Dubai, likely by an armed drone.
A cargo ship sails in the open sea. (archive)
It is still unclear why those 19 ships were targeted specifically.
There appear to have been fewer attacks last week, amid increased diplomatic measures to resolve the crisis.
Safety of seafarers
The IMO, which is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for measures to improve the safety of international shipping, is focused on ensuring the evacuation and safety of the 20,000 seafarers.
“There is no precedent for so many seafarers being stranded in the modern era,” said Damien Chevallier, Director of the organization’s Maritime Safety Division.
“The IMO has called on all parties to the conflict to reduce the intensity of attacks so that seafarers can be evacuated to safety.”
“They’ve been working in an active war zone for a month,” Chevallier said. “It’s a very scary situation and one can only imagine the psychological stress they are facing.”
The International Transport Workers’ Federation, an IMO partner representing seafarers, said it had received more than 1,000 emails from crew members stranded on ships expressing concern about conditions on board and calling for repatriation to their home countries.
“It might be possible to relieve those seafarers by replacing them with others, as a ship obviously needs a crew to continue operating, but the companies running those ships would need to find volunteers,” Chevallier said.
A satellite photograph shows the strategically important shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The best solution is for these ships to pass to safety through the Strait of Hormuz, but that would require a cessation of hostilities,” he added.
Negotiating a safe passage
The 2,000 ships in the Persian Gulf are being resupplied with food, water and fuel by companies operating from Saudi Arabia and Oman. Saudi authorities have worked with the IMO to provide information to the industry on how to contact those replenishment companies.
It is not necessarily safer for those ships to remain in port, so ships are moving around the Gulf in search of safe places where they can wait out the conflict, following the protocols of the shipping companies that own them.
As the IMO continues to engage with a range of interlocutors on the evacuation of seafarers, the IMO’s Damien Chevallier said the organization has asked Iran for “clarification of what constitutes a ‘hostile’ ship and one that could therefore be under threat of attack” if it passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Internationally agreed route
The strait is of vital importance to the global economy. It is estimated that 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supply passes through it.
In 1968, the IMO adopted an internationally agreed system of shipping routes, a system of separation of maritime traffic in both directions, with the agreement of the countries of the region. This charts the safest route through the narrow sea corridor that passes near Oman in the south.
However, the few ships that have transited have taken a route northward, near Iran, supposedly so that the authorities of that country can monitor their movements more closely.
What’s next for seafarers?
The IMO’s short-term goal is to ensure the safety of all crew currently trapped in the Persian Gulf, but there are longer-term concerns about the future of maritime shipping.
“If seafarers do not feel safe due to conflicts like the one taking place now, it will be difficult to attract the next generation to meet the increasing needs,” explained Mr Chevallier.
“Without seafarers there can be no global trade on which the world’s economies depend.”