The Iran war is turning one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors into a graveyard of unanswered distress calls, missing vessels and mounting casualties.
His family has not heard from him since May 9. The family had also borrowed around Rs 15 lakh to finance his maritime training. Kumar had signed a six-month contract for what his family believed was a Dubai-based job but was taken to Iran within a week of joining, according to Reuters. Reuters reported that the two ships were not included in the IMO’s record of maritime incidents, despite their disappearance and the missing crew. The lack of a distress signal or confirmed account of their fate has added to concerns over the risks faced by sailors navigating waters caught in the Iran conflict.
His mother, V Pandiselvi, told Reuters that the family has been desperately seeking information about his whereabouts. She said they continue to replay his old voice messages while waiting for news. Iraqi maritime official Khaled Saad al-Thaalibi told Reuters that Iranian search-and-rescue teams had looked for the vessels but failed to find them.
Twenty-three-year-old Naveen Kumar from Tamil Nadu is among those missing after the vessels disappeared. The uncertainty has left Kumar’s family struggling to establish what happened to him. His family approached Mumbai-based recruitment firm Lascar Marine Services, which had arranged his employment. However, they alleged that the company initially assured them of his return but later stopped responding to their calls. The uncertainty extends beyond the Indian sailor. The six crew members aboard the two missing vessels included three Iraqis, two Indians and one Pakistani.
Commercial shipping has been caught between two fronts, with Iran attacking vessels in an effort to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States has struck Iran-linked ships as part of its blockade of Iranian ports, according to a Reuters investigation.