India bars seafarers from Strait Of Hormuz voyages after attacks
India's Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) directed ship owners, ship managers, and recruitment and placement services to stop deploying Indian seafarers on any vessel undertaking voyages through the Strait of Hormuz, effective until further orders.
The directive follows an escalation of attacks on shipping in and around the strait, including one incident in which an Indian seafarer was killed.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has separately warned that the chokepoint remains too dangerous for commercial vessels at present.
The order also calls for heightened security vigilance across the wider Persian Gulf and adjoining waters, with continuous monitoring of navigational warnings and security advisories.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) — Global Shipping Safety Regulator
The International Maritime Organization is the specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for the safety, security, and environmental performance of international shipping. It originated from a 1948 UN conference in Geneva that adopted a convention establishing the body (then named the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, IMCO); the organisation first convened in 1959 and was renamed IMO in 1982. It is headquartered in London.
Key Details
- Established by convention: 1948 (Geneva); entered into force and first assembled: 1959; renamed IMO: 1982
- Headquarters: London, United Kingdom; recognised as a UN specialised agency since 1958-59
- Key IMO conventions include SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea, 1974), MARPOL (marine pollution, 1973/78), and STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for seafarers, 1978)
- IMO issues area-specific security advisories (such as for the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden) that inform national directives like India's seafarer deployment ban, though such advisories are not independently binding on member states
India's DGS order operationalises, at the national level, the risk assessment that the IMO — the global standard-setting body for shipping safety — had already flagged for the Strait of Hormuz.
India's Directorate General of Shipping and Seafarer Welfare Regulation
The Directorate General of Shipping, an attached office of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, is India's statutory maritime administration responsible for implementing shipping and seafarer-related law, including certification of Indian seafarers, vessel safety oversight, and welfare directives, under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.
Key Details
- Statutory basis: Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (as amended), which governs registration of ships, certification of seafarers, and safety of navigation for Indian-flagged and Indian-crewed vessels
- India is a signatory to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC 2006), an International Labour Organization (ILO) instrument setting minimum working and living standards for seafarers globally, often called the "seafarers' bill of rights"
- The DGS advisory applies irrespective of the flag state of the vessel, since it targets deployment of Indian nationals as crew rather than regulating Indian-flagged ships alone
- India is the world's third-largest supplier of seafarers globally, with more than 300,000 Indian nationals working across international shipping fleets
The DGS's directive is a direct exercise of its statutory seafarer-welfare mandate, applied here to protect Indian crew members from a specific, officially assessed maritime security risk in the Hormuz corridor.
India's Maritime Chokepoint Exposure and Crew Safety Precedents
India's heavy reliance on Gulf-origin energy imports and its position as a leading seafarer-supplying nation together create a dual exposure whenever a chokepoint such as the Strait of Hormuz becomes unsafe — both to energy supply continuity and to the safety of Indian crew serving on vessels of any nationality that transit the strait.
Key Details
- Over 60% of India's crude oil imports originate from Persian Gulf countries, with a significant share historically transiting the Strait of Hormuz
- The Philippines, the world's largest supplier of seafarers, imposed a similar restriction on deployment to the Persian Gulf earlier in the crisis before easing it, a precedent India's own measure echoes
- India's Ministry of External Affairs has previously run named evacuation operations (e.g., Operation Ganga in 2022, Operation Kaveri in 2023) during regional crises affecting Indian nationals abroad, reflecting an institutional pattern of protective measures during Gulf and conflict-zone emergencies
The seafarer deployment ban extends this established pattern of protective state action to a workforce-specific risk — crew safety — that is distinct from, but occurs alongside, India's broader energy-security exposure to the same chokepoint.
- Directive issued by: Directorate General of Shipping (DGS), Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
- Statutory basis: Merchant Shipping Act, 1958
- IMO established: 1948 (convention); operational from 1959; renamed from IMCO to IMO in 1982; headquartered in London
- India's global rank in seafarer supply: 3rd largest, with over 300,000 Indian seafarers deployed worldwide
- Share of India's crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf: over 60%
- Comparable precedent: the Philippines (world's largest seafarer supplier) earlier restricted, then eased, deployment to the Persian Gulf during the same crisis