LONDON: Seafarers’ helplines say they are overwhelmed with messages from crews stuck in the Gulf by the Middle East war, desperately seeking repatriation, compensation and onboard supplies.

“Writing to urgently inform you that our vessel is currently facing a critical situation regarding provisions and one crew health conditions,” read an email from one seafarer on March 24 to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)’s Seafarer Support team.

“Immediate supply of food, drinking water, basic necessities is required to sustain the crew,” said the message to the team’s helpline.

The ITF said it had received more than 1,000 emails and messages from seafarers stuck around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider region since the war erupted with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

Bomb strikes

Some sought to clarify what their rights are while navigating a war zone, while others sent videos of bombings striking next to their ship and asked the federation for help to get off board, according to ITF documents seen by AFP.

“It is an extraordinary situation, there is a lot of panic,” Mohamed Arrachedi, ITF’s Network Coordinator for the Arab World and Iran, in charge of handling requests from seafarers in the region, told AFP, describing the situation as “really shocking”.

“I get calls from seafarers at two o’clock, three o’clock in the morning. They call me the minute they have access to the internet,” Arrachedi said on Wednesday by telephone from Spain.

“One seafarer called in a panic, saying: ‘We are here bombed. We don’t want to die. Please help me, sir. Please get us from here.”

About 20,000 seafarers are currently stuck in the Gulf, according to the UN’s maritime body, known as the IMO, and at least eight seafarers or dock workers have died in incidents in the region since February 28.

All correspondence was shared with AFP on condition of anonymity, as the helpline guarantees confidentiality to seafarers.

War zone rights

The International Bargaining Forum (IBF), a global maritime labour body, has declared the area a war zone.

This normally gives seafarers exceptional rights, including repatriation at the company’s cost and double pay for those working on ships covered by IBF agreements — around 15,000 vessels worldwide, according to the ITF.

Despite this, many seafarers — especially on ships without such labour agreements — are reporting difficulties with getting repatriated.

In one email sent to the ITF on March 18, a seafarer said the ship’s operator was ignoring crews’ requests to leave, arguing that there were no flights from Iraq and refusing alternative routes.

“They are forcing us to continue to do cargo operations and STS (ship-to-ship operations) even (when) we raise our concerns about our safety and we are in war like area. They are keeping us in a position with no options,” read the email seen by AFP.

The International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), another organisation operating a helpline, told AFP on Wednesday that it had seen “a 15-20% increase in calls and messages” since the start of the war, with a third relating to repatriation difficulties.

$16 a day

Another major concern is compensation.

“About 50% of emails we receive concern pay,” Lucian Craciun, one of five members of ITF’s support team processing requests at the organisation’s headquarters in London, told AFP.

He said many seafarers choose to stay on board despite the dangerous conditions because they cannot afford to leave.

One email seen by AFP came from a seafarer asking to confirm whether his salary would go from $16 a day to $32 because he was in a designated war zone.

The ITF says such low salaries indicate that the shipowners do not have labour agreements in place to ensure decent pay.

Seafarers working under such arrangements are particularly at risk because their contracts often do not cover operations in war zones, and owners tend not to respond to requests from organisations such as the ITF, according to the support team.

When that happens, the ITF reaches out to the flag states and, if that does not work, to the state port authority where the vessel is located.

Arrachedi said that many such cases in the Gulf are still unresolved, with seafarers desperately awaiting responses from operators.

Large No Kings protests took place across the world on Saturday as demonstrators voiced opposition to US President Donald Trump and called for an end to the war on Iran.

Outside the United States, rallies were held in countries including Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, where protesters chanted slogans against the Trump administration and demanded that the war be stopped.

• Over 3,200 events planned across all 50 states of United States.
• Organisers expect more protests in smaller communities this time.
• Protests driven by backlash against Iran conflict, Trump’s policies.
  

Massive protests against President Donald Trump kicked off Saturday across the United States and beyond, as millions of people vent fury over what they see as his authoritarian bent and other forms of cruel, law-trampling governance.

It is the third time in less than a year that Americans have taken to the streets as part of a grassroots movement called “No Kings,” the most vocal and visual conduit for opposition to Trump since he began his second term in January 2025.

Now they have something new to fume over — the war against Iran that Trump launched alongside Israel, with ever-shifting goals and timelines for completion.

The anti-Trump mood has spilled beyond US borders, with rallies Saturday in European cities including Amsterdam, Madrid and Rome.

US protests began in several cities, including Atlanta, where thousands of people gathered in a park to decry authoritarianism.

One man at the rally held a sign that read “We Are Losing Our Democracy.”

In the Michigan town of West Bloomfield, near Detroit, people braved below-freezing temperatures to protest.

Record numbers expected

The first “No Kings” nationwide protest day came last June on Trump´s 79th birthday and coincided with a military parade he organised in Washington. Several million people turned out, from New York to San Francisco.

The second such protest, in October, drew an estimated seven million protesters, according to organisers.

The goal now is to bring out even more people Saturday, as Trump´s approval rating sinks below 40% and midterm elections loom in November, when Trump´s Republicans could lose control of both chambers of Congress.

Just as Trump is worshipped by many in his “Make America Great Again” movement, he is disliked with equal passion on the other side of America’s wide political chasm.

Foes bemoan his penchant for ruling by executive decree, his use of the Justice Department to prosecute opponents, his apparent obsession with fossil fuels and climate change denial.

They also dislike his gutting of racial and gender diversity programs, and his taste for flexing US military power after campaigning as a man of peace.

“Since the last time we marched, this administration has dragged us deeper into war,” said Naveed Shah of Common Defence, a veterans association connected to the “No Kings” movement.

“At home, we’ve watched citizens killed in the streets by militarised forces. We´ve seen families torn apart and immigrant communities targeted. All of it done in the name of one man trying to rule like a king.”

Springsteen in Minneapolis

Organisers say more than 3,000 rallies are planned, in major cities and in suburbs and rural areas — even in the Alaskan town of Kotzebue, above the Arctic circle.

Minnesota is a key focal point, months after becoming ground zero for the national debate over Trump´s violent immigration crackdown.

Legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen, a fierce critic of the president, is scheduled to perform his song “Streets of Minneapolis” in the twin city of St. Paul, the capital of the northern state.

Springsteen wrote and recorded the protest ballad in just 24 hours in memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens shot dead by federal agents during January protests against Trump´s immigration offensive.

What began in 2025 as a simple day of defiance has mushroomed into a “No Kings” movement of national resistance to Trump.

Organisers say two-thirds of those who plan to rally Saturday do not live in big cities, which in America are often Democratic strongholds — a data point that is up sharply since the last protest.