UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk on Friday urged governments and shipping companies to secure the safe evacuation and repatriation of roughly 6,000 merchant sailors stranded on hundreds of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), at least 400 ships remain stuck in the waterway, their crews unable to leave during a fleeting ceasefire in a conflict that has pitted the United States and Iran against each other since late February. Spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told reporters in Geneva that the seafarers face a "dire humanitarian and human rights crisis", and that the parties to the conflict must "urgently work to facilitate safe passage" as well as guarantee the delivery of food, water and medical supplies.

The UN has documented 17 seafarer deaths since hostilities began. The rights office said at least nine ships with 93 crew have been abandoned by their owners, leaving personnel without "food, water, fuel, medical care, electricity or means to communicate with their families". Many more crew are unaccounted for. Türk’s appeal extended to all states, shipowners and "relevant actors" to provide consular assistance, essential provisions and the means for repatriation. The UN insists that civilian vessels are protected under international humanitarian law and that "attacks against civilian vessels are unacceptable and must stop."

The crisis flows from a sharp escalation in the strategic chokepoint through which one fifth of global oil passed before the war. Washington launched fresh strikes on Iran on Friday, after Tehran-backed Houthi rebels attacked oil tankers in the Red Sea, driving Brent crude above $100 a barrel for the first time in months. The US military maintains the strait remains "open for transit", but Iran has threatened any vessel that does not follow a coastal route it has unilaterally designated and has demanded payment for safe passage. From Tehran’s perspective, the pre-war status quo of free transit is over. The US commands, in turn, have imposed a de facto blockade of Iranian ports. Each side accuses the other of imperilling civilian shipping.

Against this backdrop, the UN’s warning underscored the compound risk to both mariners and the world economy. The IMO had planned to evacuate 11,000 sailors from the Gulf, but the operation proved insufficient, leaving thousands still at sea. Diplomatically, Iran’s foreign minister has warned that any country assisting US operations will be held responsible, while Washington has pledged to continue strikes as long as the blockade persists. With no structured negotiation track in sight, the UN’s immediate focus is on ensuring that states and commercial actors coordinate to extract the trapped crews, even as the military confrontation shows no sign of abating.