UN shipping agency says 19 seafarers killed, 6,000 stranded as Iran war leaves Hormuz crisis unresolved
LONDON/DUBAI — Nineteen seafarers have been killed in attacks on international shipping since the Iran war began six months ago, while around 6,000 crew members remain unable to safely leave the Persian Gulf, the United Nations shipping agency said Friday, exposing a human cost of the conflict that has often been overshadowed by oil prices, military strikes and geopolitical confrontation. The International Maritime Organization said it has verified at least 70 attacks on international shipping since February 28, while as many as 400 vessels carrying approximately 6,000 seafarers remain unable to depart safely from the region. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said thousands of sailors continue to live and work under conditions of heightened danger and uncertainty as the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz remains unresolved.
The figures mark one of the clearest assessments yet of the direct toll on civilian maritime workers from the six-month conflict. IMO's verified incident list shows attacks continuing deep into August, including fatal strikes on the Minoan Dignity on August 17 and Riyan Star on August 15 in the Strait of Hormuz. Other vessels have been damaged, abandoned or hit elsewhere in the Gulf and Gulf of Oman, with sailors killed, injured or reported missing. The agency's count is based on confirmed incidents and therefore provides a more conservative measure than the wider range of maritime-security alerts recorded since the war began.
For thousands of crew members, the danger is not limited to being struck while underway. Many have spent months aboard ships unable to leave safely because normal navigation through Hormuz has been disrupted by mines and the threat of drones, missiles and attacks by vessels. IMO previously worked with Oman and other governments on an emergency evacuation framework that successfully moved 136 vessels carrying about 2,900 seafarers through two alternative routes. But the operation was later paused after officials concluded they could no longer guarantee the safety of ships using those corridors. Around 6,000 sailors remained trapped in the region after that evacuation effort stalled.
The scale of the problem has turned freedom of navigation from an economic argument into a humanitarian one. Dominguez said Friday that the disruption has serious short- and long-term consequences for crews as well as global supplies of fuel, fertilizer and other commodities. The IMO Council adopted a resolution in July reaffirming that transit through straits used for international navigation must not be threatened, obstructed or suspended, and called for a coordinated return to unhindered navigation through Hormuz. Six months into the conflict, however, the agency says that objective has still not been achieved.
Fresh shipping data underscores how far the strait remains from normal. Preliminary Kpler tracking cited by Reuters showed only seven commodity vessels passed through Hormuz on Thursday, down from 17 the previous day and below the 10-day average of 15. Four vessels exited the Gulf and three entered. Ship-tracking figures can undercount actual movements because some vessels switch off their transponders for security reasons, but the data still indicates that commercial traffic remains heavily constrained compared with pre-war levels. Before hostilities began, roughly one-fifth of globally traded oil and natural gas passed through the narrow waterway connecting Gulf producers with international markets.
There are signs of movement toward restoring navigation. U.S. Central Command said Thursday that international shipping lanes through Hormuz had been cleared of mines and declared the lanes open, although Gulf governments had not publicly confirmed the assessment and the claim could not immediately be independently verified. Even removing mines would address only part of the threat: commercial vessels remain exposed to missiles, drones and other attacks, meaning insurers, shipowners and crews must decide whether a technically navigable channel is actually safe enough to use.
That distinction helps explain why shipping has not immediately returned despite diplomatic and military efforts to reopen the strait. Iran and Oman have been negotiating arrangements intended to normalize navigation, while Qatar has stepped into broader mediation between Tehran and Washington. Iran has indicated conditional willingness to move toward restoring maritime traffic, but negotiations remain connected to the wider conflict and U.S. economic pressure. Washington, meanwhile, says it is not currently negotiating directly with Tehran.
The prolonged crisis also creates risks extending beyond crews and cargo. Ships stranded for months require fuel, food, medical support, maintenance and crew changes, while mariners can face psychological strain from remaining aboard vessels inside an active conflict zone without knowing when they can leave. Insurance costs have also remained elevated. The IMO warned in July that high maritime insurance premiums were compounding costs for shipowners and economies dependent on trade even when local security conditions showed signs of improvement.
The IMO's latest figures therefore alter the way the six-month Hormuz crisis can be measured. Oil flows and tanker counts reveal the economic disruption, but the agency's data documents something more immediate: civilian workers have been dying aboard commercial vessels while thousands of others remain unable to return to normal trading conditions. Dominguez stressed that seafarers and civilian shipping should not become leverage in geopolitical conflicts and called for renewed cooperation among governments, industry and the wider United Nations system.
Six months into the Iran war, Hormuz is consequently neither completely closed nor meaningfully back to normal. Ships are still moving, diplomatic efforts are underway and Washington says mine-clearing has opened international lanes. But 70 verified attacks, 19 dead seafarers and around 6,000 people still stranded aboard hundreds of vessels show the distance between declaring a shipping lane open and making it safe enough for civilian crews to trust.