AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to an often-forgotten group of people caught in the middle of the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz: over 20,000 seafarers who have been stranded on ships that haven’t been allowed to pass through the strait for over two months. The United Nations International Maritime Organization estimates at least 10 seafarers have been killed since the start of the war. These maritime workers are working-class men from developing countries across the Global South. They form the crews on oil tankers, container ships and smaller support vessels.

The men have been trapped on some 1,500 ships that have been unable to dock on either side of the Persian Gulf. Caught between fears of war and the commercial pressures of shipping companies, the workers have limited legal protections. Unpaid for several weeks, lacking the visas to disembark in any of the Gulf countries near the ships, the men have been stuck on board for weeks with dwindling supplies of food and water. Most of them had to take out sizable loans to pay middlemen to get these seafaring jobs. Now they’ve been stranded in a war zone with almost no money to show for it.

A few hundred men have been repatriated off the ships. Here’s a man who just landed back in India after an arduous journey through Iraq, Armenia and Dubai.

TITHI CHIRANJEEVI: [translated] We did not have internet, and there was no way to communicate with our families back home. We were quite tense, and our relatives also were under a lot of duress back home. Subsequently, even getting food became difficult. Around 200 people, Indians, are still stranded there.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined now by two guests. Manoj Yadav is general secretary, Forward Seamen’s Union of India, joining us from Mumbai. And Mohamed Arrachedi is the network coordinator for the Arab world and Iran at the International Transport Workers’ Federation. He’s joining us from Bilbao, the Basque region of Spain.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Mohamed, let’s begin with you. We’re talking about what? Twenty thousand seafarers? What happens to them now?

MOHAMED ARRACHEDI: Thank you for the invitation.

Well, there are more than 20,000 seafarers, standard. They are in a total — they have a deep feeling of lack of protection. Part of the requests we do receive, we have — until now, in the two months after the start of the war, we have been reached out by more than 2,000 seafarers, 2,000 times reached out, the ITF, at the International Transport Workers’ Federation. That doesn’t mean that it is 2,000 seafarers. It’s much more, because the seafarers is talking on behalf of a group of seafarers or the crew on board.

The main problem is the big worry, absolute big worry about the situation, being aware of the situation of war. There are requests of repatriation. There are requests to — being stranded there, being blocked there, there is lack of food, there is lack of provisions, there is lack of water, there is shortage of food. There are seafarers asking us, that they are eating once a day.

And, of course, there is the other problems to which these seafarers, men and women, are exposed, have not disappeared with the war. So, we have still cases of abandonment in the region, abandonment as defined by the Maritime Labor Convention, seafarers who have not been paid for eight months, not paid for five months, not paid for 11 months. These are all cases that are happening.

So, for us, these are just not numbers. There are seafarers, civilian workers, who have the bad chance to be in the wrong place. The seafarers, men and women, have not provoked this war, are not part of it and cannot stop it. And unfortunately, they are vulnerable, because they cannot move by themselves. We have to understand that these seafarers cannot just take their bags and go to the airport. The seafarers here as just exposed and absolutely vulnerable and need and claim protection.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mohamed, the global economy depends on this world shipping network, and yet many of these workers come from different countries. The ships are under Liberian or Panamanian flags. There’s no one actually to — no nations that stand up for their workers. Could you talk about the international character of these crews?

MOHAMED ARRACHEDI: Yeah, the seafarers are mostly — the most majority are from the Global South, so from the developing countries — India, Georgia, Egypt, Philippines, Indonesians, Myanmar. So, these are the most nationalities affected. And as you have described it, rightfully describe it, unfortunately, the flag of convenience system lacks transparency. And we are here, clearly, in a situation where the seafarers on board, who are necessary for the supply chains, who are necessary for the economy — we have to remember that the vessels do not run alone. The vessels go nowhere without the workforce, without the seafarers, men and women, on board. And now we observe that in such a situation, there is absolutely no protocol to protect them. And we are talking here about protection, about physical integrity, about physical protection.

You have mentioned in the introduction there are more than 10 — at least 10 of seafarers, 10, 12 seafarers, who lost their lives. And this is absolutely not acceptable. It is absolutely not acceptable that the maritime industry in the 21st century, absolutely aware about this, we are not putting the human dimension. We are not putting the seafarers, the workforce, without which — I insist, without which these vessels will not and cannot move. We cannot put their living conditions, because the seafarers work and live on board. This is important to understand, because the seafarers is not like us. We do our journey of work, then we go home. The seafarers stay there. And now they are — we are all seeing — we are all seeing it, live, all the time. They are exposed, they are vulnerable, and they are claiming protection.

AMY GOODMAN: Manoj Yadav, we want to go to you, Forward Seamen’s Union of India, speaking to us from Mumbai. You’re in touch with seafarers and their families every day. You’ve said the majority want to go home. As we wrap up this discussion, talk about conditions on the ships. What’s preventing more seafarers from leaving? And what does repatriation entail?

MANOJ YADAV: Yes, from the day this war began, we are continuously communicating with hundreds of seafarers, mainly focused on the ports of Iran and the territory, water territory, of Iran, where the maximum damage has been done by this war. So, there are hundreds of vessels, especially small vessels, as Brother Mohamed has already described what are the situation of — what are the situation in the Middle East.

But the seafarers, who are mainly stranded at Iranian port and within their water territory, they were under big pressure, big threat, because many of have seen continuous bombing, missile, drone attack, even at a time they have reported from Bandar Abbas, they have reported from Khorramshahr, Siri Island, Lavan port. They are continuously showing — in initial days, they were continuously showing us on the WhatsApp video call what was the condition, where a continuous bombing was going on.

In that condition, let us be very clear, the seafarers are trained for commercial vessels. They are trained for serving on board merchant vessels. They are not trained for the war. And what was their mental condition during those days when they were there and continuously watching and witnessing a continuous attack nearby their vessels? Some of them have reported very, very close to their vessel, nearly 500.

So, we have continuously raising the alarm, flagging the issue, even the family members, who — initially, after middle of March, when many seafarers lost the communication with their family due to shortage of internet facility. That was the biggest, biggest issue with the family members, when they were not able to communicate. That was the time, what Brother Mohamed has already said, there were so many vessels which were facing shortage of food, shortage of water. Even some of them have started rationing the water, so two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon.

We have handled a few cases where the seafarers have traveled from Khorramshahr, Bandar Abbas to Bushehr, Bushehr to Armenia. It’s nearly 1,800 kilometers by road. And they start. They completed this journey ’til Mumbai, after taking a flight from Mumbai nearly 15 days, 20 days. They had — yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Manoj Yadav, we have to leave it there, but we’ll continue to follow this story, general secretary, Forward Seamen’s Union of India, speaking to us from Mumbai, and Mohamed Arrachedi with the International Transport Workers’ Federation in Bilbao, Spain.

That does it for today’s show. I’m here in Minneapolis, where I’ll be at the 11:30 screening of Steal This Story, Please!, the new film about Democracy Now!, at the Main Cinema, joined by one of the film’s directors, Carl Deal. Then on to Chicago. I’ll be at the Music Box Theatre tonight and on Saturday after the 2:30 and 6 p.m. screenings, joined by directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin and tomorrow night with Juan González, as well; on Sunday at the historic Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee. Steal This Story, Please! tour continues through May. Go to democracynow.org.