IMO and Oman Launch Plan to Evacuate 11,000 Seafarers Stranded in Persian Gulf
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the Sultanate of Oman have announced a coordinated plan to evacuate 11,000 seafarers stranded on ships in the Persian Gulf due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia. The operation aims to provide safe passage for vessels that have been unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz since the outbreak of hostilities.
IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez stated that the large-scale operation would be carried out in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, and other coastal states in the region, as well as the United States and the maritime industry. He added that necessary safety guarantees have been secured and conditions for safe navigation have been thoroughly verified.
The plan, detailed in a letter from Oman's Ministry of Defence to Pakistan's National Hydrographic Office, establishes two temporary maritime corridors: one along the Omani coast and the other along the Iranian coast. The letter notes that the traditional traffic separation scheme in the Strait of Hormuz is currently unsafe due to the presence of mines. The two new routes can handle 20 to 30 ships per day, down from the pre-war average of 130 ships per day. Hundreds of ships remain stranded west of the strait.
Under the phased evacuation plan, vessels will be contacted individually and assigned a transit day. Ships will first proceed to a designated waiting area in international waters, then contact the relevant coastal state—Iran for the northern route—to confirm transit. The IMO emphasises that each shipowner and master remains responsible for conducting an independent risk assessment before embarking on the voyage, and vessels must keep their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) switched on.
The announcement comes days after Iran stated that vessels submitting passage requests to its newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority would be cleared promptly. Pakistan and Qatar have been mediating negotiations between Iran and the United States. The IMO, a United Nations agency, is coordinating the operation with all parties involved.
