V. Pandiselvi, the mother of Indian sailor Naveen Kumar, has not heard from her son for more than six months yet she still clings to hope he will return, crying as she replays old voice notes.
Kumar was one of six crew members on two Iran-linked cargo vessels last seen in Iranian waters in May before disappearing.
Commercial ships have come under fire since the United States and Israel’s war on Iran began on Feb 28.
Teheran attacked ships to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz and the US in turn struck Iran-linked ships to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.
The United Nations’ International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has confirmed 130 “incidents” — mainly attacks — in the region since the conflict began, with at least 25 seafarers killed.
“We cannot bear this pain,” Pandiselvi, 45, said from her one-bedroom house in the city of Dindigul in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state.
“You don’t need anyone to tell you what parents would go through if they were to lose their child. We appeal to everyone involved to help us.”
Reuters spoke to shipping sources, Iraqi officials and the families of missing sailors in Iraq’s Basra and India’s Tamil Nadu state to reveal the human cost of Hormuz attacks.
The 23-year-old Kumar’s family took on considerable debt for him to complete a marine course and pursue his dream of working as a sailor, after which he left for a six-month crew contract he was told was based in Dubai.
A week in, he found himself in Iran. Even before war broke out three months later, Kumar’s family was desperately trying to repatriate him. Then came radio silence.
“Is he still on that ship, or has something terrible happened to him?
“It’s causing a lot of confusion. Every passing minute is agony,” Pandiselvi said.
Kumar had been deployed to the vessels Bridge 1 and Bridge 2, which disappeared around May 9. The two ships were not on the IMO’s list of incidents.
Iraq said in May it was monitoring the disappearance of the two vessels, which flew the Bolivian flag. No distress signals were received.
Khaled Saad al-Thaalibi, who heads the Iraqi maritime foundation in Basra, said the latest available information indicated the vessels’ Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmitted their last known position approximately 8 nautical miles from Iran’s Kish Island on May 9 at 4.50pm.
“We called the agent in Iran but he told us that he knew nothing about the incident and on the following day the Iranian search and rescue tried to look for the vessels but they found nothing,” Thaalibi said from his office in Basra.
The other Bridge 1 and 2 crew members missing are three Iraqis, one Pakistani and another Indian.
Haider Rahman al-Mayahi, a 22-year-old Iraqi sailor, was on the crew, his brother Youssef Rahman said.
“He left behind a 1-year-old daughter and a father who suffered a stroke from the grief of his disappearance.”
Al-Mayahi’s family travelled to Iran seeking answers.
They located the vessels’ owner, an Iranian who told them he had no information on the vessels.
The family received conflicting theories about the vessels.
Some shipping sources said they may have been struck by the US and sunk immediately while others speculated the crew had been detained by a Gulf state or Iran.
An order dated May 22, published on a government website, showed India’s Seamen’s Employment Office withdrew the recruitment licence of Lascar Marine Services and barred its past and present directors from maritime business for five years, citing repeated failures to repatriate seafarers — including Kumar — or pay their wages.
Since the Iran war, costs of hiring sailors have tripled with many working just one journey as risks mount.
A captain, the highest paid crew member on a vessel, could make US$8,000 to US$13,000 a month before the conflict. Now they can earn three times that.
The writers are from Reuters