The United Nations is moving to address a humanitarian and logistical crisis at sea, where thousands of crew members have been left stuck for months. According to the Secretary General of the UN International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, the agency is starting an evacuation plan for vessels and seafarers stranded aboard tankers and ships in the Strait of Hormuz. He framed the plan as a major step forward after a long period of disruption in the waterway.
The scale of the operation is considerable, involving both ships and the people aboard them. According to Dominguez, the plan covers more than 500 vessels, with the organization counting around 11,000 seafarers who need to be evacuated. He repeatedly referred to them as innocent seafarers, underscoring that the crews had been caught up in the wider crisis through no fault of their own while simply doing their jobs at sea.
A key element of the plan is a new arrangement with Oman to manage the movement of ships. According to the Secretary General, the agency now has an agreement with Oman to use the corridor closest to the territory of Oman, allowing the evacuation of the stranded vessels to begin in a very organized way. He described this corridor as central to starting the process safely in the crowded and sensitive waters of the strait.
Officials said the effect of the new corridor was already visible in the daily traffic figures. According to Dominguez, since last Friday there has been an increase of around 30 vessels transiting the strait every day using the corridor with Oman. He said the coming days would bring a further rise in transits, working closely with countries in the region to bring vessels to the locations where they need to be in a coordinated approach.
The Secretary General cautioned that fully clearing the backlog would take time and careful work. According to Dominguez, it will take a few weeks to start evacuating the more than 500 vessels, and the process has to be gradual to avoid collisions in the crowded waters. He linked the wider reopening to the strait being cleaned and demined in line with an agreement signed between Iran and the United States, which he said would allow transits to increase further.
Beyond the immediate rescue of crews, the agency framed the effort as a path back to normal commerce in the region. According to Dominguez, once the seafarers are evacuated, the next step will be to start the resumption of trade into the region, gradually bringing shipping back to the way it was operating before the conflict began. He acknowledged, however, that there is a level of risk involved because the underlying deal remains fragile.