“These sailors are rationed in drinking water, in food, it’s a humanitarian crime,” warns the Federation of Merchant Navy Officers CGT, Friday on franceinfo.
“It’s a truly dramatic humanitarian crisis for the sailors,” alerts Emmanuel Chalard on Friday, May 1 on franceinfo, general secretary of the Federation of Merchant Navy Officers CGT. He asserts that “the situation is deteriorating terribly” for the 20,000 sailors stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.
These sailors “tell us that they need to be evacuated urgently, they are rationed in drinking water, in food, it is no longer acceptable,” explains Emmanuel Chalard. The situation is particularly critical for “those on the Iranian side of the waters,” there is “no visibility,” he adds. “We are worried about the majority of sailors in the area.”
Regarding the blocking conditions on-site, Emmanuel Chalard stated on April 22 on franceinfo that “not everyone is cut from the same cloth.” There are ships “under free registration – where it is difficult to determine who the owner is and who is the charterer of the ship – and are particularly exposed to shortages of food, in addition to complicated sanitary conditions on board.” And then there are other sailors “who can replenish who do not know what they will be able to do with this ship and what benefit they have to stay in this area.”
He also explained that due to “the lack of diplomacy at the international level,” shipowners are organizing “their own diplomacy by trying to arrange as they can – with the Iranian authorities – rights of passage to be able to evacuate the ships and secure the crews.” Emmanuel Chalard acknowledged at the time that “it doesn’t work every time because there are war profiteers who have set up with false Iranian agencies that supposedly give authorizations to pass the strait […] and create tensions on the passage.”
