India Bars Seafarers From Strait of Hormuz Amid Attacks

India Restricts Seafarer Deployment Through Hormuz

India’s Directorate General of Shipping has instructed shipowners, managers, and recruitment agencies to halt the deployment of Indian seafarers on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz until further notice. According to a report by The Maritime Executive, the directive follows a string of attacks on merchant vessels in the region, including a July 14 incident that killed one engineer and injured nine crew members, three of them critically.

The Attacks Behind the Order

The July 14 strikes hit two VLCCs managed by ADNOC Logistics and Services — the Mombasa B and the Al Bahyah — as they departed the Omani coastal channel near Limah. Emirati authorities evacuated 45 crew members, 30 of them Indian and 15 Ukrainian. An Indian engineer died when the Mombasa’s engine room was struck, and the injured were taken to hospitals in Dibba, Fujairah, and Khor Fakkan.

This came just days after another fatal incident on July 11, when an Indian engineer aboard the Cyprus-flagged container ship GFS Galaxy was killed off the Musandam Peninsula. Survivors were rescued by the Royal Navy of Oman and treated at Khasab Hospital, which had recently reopened at a new, larger site.

India’s maritime authority pointed to five recent attacks in total, also naming the MT Wedyan and the Al Rekayyat as vessels affected. The directorate said the pattern of incidents has sharply raised the danger level for crews working in the strait, and it has told masters to keep heightened watch, closely tracking navigational warnings and security advisories.

A Political and Humanitarian Response

India’s External Affairs Ministry publicly condemned the attacks and broader violence against seafarers, a position echoed by IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez, who has stressed that crew safety and welfare must remain the top priority. The IMO has since paused its evacuation operations in the area, citing the ongoing risk. Separately, the All India Seafarer & General Workers Union had been pressing the government to act before the ban was announced.

According to IMO figures cited in the report, the Persian Gulf region has now recorded 57 confirmed incidents involving vessels since the conflict began, with 18 seafarer deaths and 14 injuries tied specifically to the recent spate of attacks flagged by Indian authorities.

Operational Fallout for Owners and Managers

Because Indian nationals make up a substantial share of global ship crews, a strictly enforced ban would ripple far beyond Indian-flagged tonnage, touching fleets managed and crewed internationally through Indian manning agencies. Yet how the directive will actually be enforced remains uncertain — not least because some Indian crew members are currently trapped aboard vessels still transiting or stranded within the Gulf, with no clear path to be replaced or repatriated immediately.

What This Means for Owners and Charterers

For ship owners and technical managers, this development compounds an already difficult operating picture in the strait. Crewing plans built around Indian nationals — long a mainstay of global manning — may need contingency alternatives on short notice, and charterers routing tonnage through Hormuz should expect owners to push back on voyage instructions or demand additional risk premiums and war-risk cover. It also underscores the growing importance of pre-fixture condition and crew-welfare due diligence: vessels transiting high-risk waters increasingly warrant independent verification of manning, security preparedness, and vessel condition before and after each transit, not just at charter inception. Surveyors and inspectors working in the Gulf region should also anticipate tighter windows and heightened caution when boarding vessels for bunker, cargo, or condition surveys near the strait, given the security advisories now in effect.

With attacks continuing and enforcement of the ban still unclear, owners and managers face a genuinely difficult balancing act between commercial commitments and the safety of the seafarers who keep these vessels moving.

Reviewed by Ibrahim Halil Ceylan, Marine Surveyor at Apeks Marine.