The International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced on Tuesday the start of an evacuation operation for more than 11,000 seafarers stranded aboard an estimated 500–600 vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and adjacent waters. The move follows the reopening of the strait last week under a US-Iran memorandum of understanding that ended a months-long war. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said the operation would be conducted in close coordination with Iran, Oman, all other regional coastal states, the United States and the commercial shipping sector, after the agency had received the necessary security guarantees and verified safe navigation conditions.

Iran and Oman, the two states bordering the strait, issued a joint statement insisting that all arrangements must fully respect their sovereignty and sovereign rights over territorial waters. They announced the formation of a joint committee between their foreign ministries to negotiate the future administration of shipping in the waterway, including related services and costs, in accordance with international standards. Viewed from Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio countered that the Strait of Hormuz is an “international waterway” and that no country has the right to impose fees or taxes on transit. Iranian chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf separately signalled that the strait’s status “will not return to what it was before the war,” indicating that Tehran intends to maintain a heightened supervisory role.

The humanitarian evacuation is being facilitated by two temporary sea corridors established by Oman in coordination with the IMO, with vessels contacted individually for routing instructions. The IMO said it would publish a daily report on the number of ships departing safely. Shipping data compiled by Kepler and AXS Marine show a sharp increase in traffic: at least 36–42 cargo vessels transited the strait on Monday, the highest daily count since the war erupted on 28 February. That figure, however, represents roughly one-third of the peacetime average of about 120 crossings per day through a chokepoint that handles close to 20 per cent of global energy exports. Many of the stranded ships are oil tankers, and US President Donald Trump claimed that 19 million barrels of oil moved through the strait on Monday, describing it as the largest single-day transfer in the waterway’s history.

The war had closed the strait after US and Israeli strikes in late February, triggering a spike in global oil prices and disrupting shipments of energy, fertilisers and other commodities. The IMO’s Dominguez welcomed the US-Iran peace accord as a “crucial step” toward restoring maritime security and ending attacks on civilian vessels, noting that around 14 seafarers lost their lives during the conflict. With the evacuation now under way, the immediate focus is on extracting the remaining crews, while the joint Iranian-Omani committee is expected to begin talks on the long-term governance framework for the strait. The IMO’s daily reporting will provide a public measure of how quickly normal transit patterns can be restored.