Around 3,000 Filipino seafarers are stranded on around 400 ships in the Persian Gulf after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the Strait of Hormuz was closed again.
The figure was released this week by the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). That’s an increase from the 2,500 the department announced just days ago, as renewed exchanges between the US and Iranian forces have brought transit through the strait to the brink of a standstill.
Migrant Workers Secretary said the seafarers are not being held hostage. “They still do their regular shifts and they’re still sending wages and benefits to their families in the Philippines,” he said.
The department also said 3,718 Filipino crew members have transited the strait since the crisis began.
Secretary said that DMW is working with licensed manning agencies and shipowners to make sure the remaining vessels are supplied with food, water, medicine and other essentials and that monitoring is operating round the clock. He said the ships concerned were still seaworthy.
However, two vessels, each carrying
Original Source MARINE INSIGHT www.marineinsight.com
