Hundreds of seafarers on more than 100 foreign-flagged cargo vessels are stranded in Ukrainian waters in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov “in the middle of the line of fire”.
The International Chamber of Shipping and unions are calling for the immediate creation of safe “blue corridors” to enable the ships and their crews to leave without risk of missile or mine strikes. The UN’s International Maritime Organization, which held an emergency meeting last week to address the situation, estimates that up to 2,000 men could be affected, although some may have been repatriated, it said.
Russian’s military took control of the crucial waterway when it invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
One man, Hadisur Rahman, 27, was killed at the port of Olvia, near Mykolaiv on the Dnipro-Bug estuary, earlier this month after a missile struck his Bangladesh-flagged cargo ship.
The same night, six crew had to be rescued from the icy waters after an Estonian cargo vessel, the Helt, sank after an explosion near Odesa. A further three vessels have been hit by projectiles since the invasion began.
Rahman, a “very promising” officer who was the sole breadwinner for his family, died on the bridge of the Banglar Samriddhi when the missile struck on 2 March.
Anam Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Merchant Mariners Officers’ Association, said: “It has taken the whole country by shock. We have never had a situation like this. Hadisur was a dynamic engineer.”
He added that the third engineer’s funeral was held on Wednesday in his village of Hasnabad Betagi in Bangladesh.
“Thousands of people attended his funeral,” said Chowdhury. “He was very promising; he would have gone on to be a chief engineer. He was the eldest son in the family; he was going to get married and build a house for his parents.”
After the missile strike, Ukraine accused the Russian military of targeting the port, while Russia’s embassy in Dhaka said the circumstances of the incident were “being established”, Reuters reported. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Natalie Shaw, of the International Chamber of Shipping, said between 90 and 140 ships were stranded in the Black Sea region, typically with a crew of 16 to 24.
“We’re told the Russians have said they will fire on any vessels that move in the area,” said Shaw. “We are worried as things intensify.”
Shaw said countries including Bangladesh, the Philippines and India were asking for their seafarers to be repatriated.
“The problem is, it may not be safe to get them off the vessels into other countries. People are being attacked in humanitarian corridors. It could be taking them out of the frying pan into the fire.
“It may not be intentional to hit the ships,” she added, “but unfortunately, they are sitting in the middle of the line of fire and they are collateral damage.”
Nataliya Yefrimenko, an inspector at the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), said the initial hits happened to ships at anchorage.
“For the ships, it is safer to be in port than at anchorage. Now, we have no ships at anchorage. The safety of the crew is the shipowners’ responsibility, whether it is safer to stay or to go. So far, it is unsafe for ships to leave, unless there is a safe corridor.”
Last week, the IMO’s secretary general, Kitack Lim, indicated “his commitment to take immediate action” towards establishing a safe maritime corridor with “the cooperation and collaboration of the relevant parties, including littoral states”. This would allow the “evacuation of seafarers and ships” from the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to a safer place.
Capt Kuba Szymanski, secretary general of InterManager, which represents the managers of about 5,000 ships and 250,000 seafarers, said they had evacuated four ships in Black Sea ports and were providing funds for the families of Ukrainian seafarers to help get them into safe countries, including Romania, Poland and Moldova.
“The ships are locked in those ports because the waters around there are mined. It’s not safe to give orders to move away. When we think that the safety of the crew cannot be assured, we are evacuating crew but as far as I’m concerned that was only required in four cases.
“Last week, IMO agreed, we will be seeking blue corridors. Now we need to see how we can walk this talk, and allow ships to sail away.”
Rostyslav Inzhestoikov, the assistant chaplain in Odesa of Stella Maris, a charity for seafarers, said: “Some of the crews have been evacuated, some remain onboard, continuing to maintain the ship.
“Can you imagine, they are blocked in a country where there is war, outside the UN, close to bombing. If they read the news, they know one ship has sunk and a Bangladeshi has been killed. It is normal to be afraid. It is high stress for everyone in Ukraine.”