LONDON: The head of the UN’s maritime body on Wednesday urged “practical measures” to protect trade ships threatened by the Middle East war, as he opened an emergency meeting amid fears for thousands of stranded ships and seafarers. The International Maritime Organisation — responsible for regulating international shipping safety — will discuss efforts to ease the shipping crisis during the two-day gathering at its London headquarters.
The IMO’s 40-member council could vote Thursday on several proposed resolutions, including one to “establish a safe maritime corridor to allow the safe evacuation of seafarers and ships stranded in the Gulf”. However, if passed, resolutions remain non-binding.
A dock worker walks past stacked shipping containers at Umm Qasr Port in Basra — AFP
The meeting — open to all 176 member states as well as dozens of NGOs and maritime industry bodies — comes as Iran’s retaliation to Israeli-US strikes cripples commercial shipping in or near the Strait of Hormuz. That has left around 20,000 seafarers stranded on approximately 3,200 vessels west of the key maritime chokepoint, according to the latest information from the IMO.
“This situation is unacceptable and unsustainable,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said as the gathering got underway, urging members to focus on “practical measures” to resolve it. “Shipping has demonstrated time and again how resilient it is but geopolitics are testing the sector to the limit and every time that shipping is used as collateral damage in these conflicts, the whole world is negatively affected.” — AFP
