The Numbers: 7,000 Filipino Seafarers Trapped at Hormuz

The Numbers: 7,000 Filipino Seafarers Trapped at Hormuz

Five weeks after the US-Israel strikes on Iran triggered the worst maritime chokepoint crisis since World War II, a humanitarian emergency is unfolding aboard roughly 2,000 vessels trapped in and around the Persian Gulf. The numbers tell a story that the geopolitical headlines are missing.

The Headline Figures

20,000 — seafarers currently stranded on vessels unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez, who briefed foreign ministers from more than 40 countries on April 2.

7,000 — the estimated number of Filipino nationals among them. At 35% of the total, Filipinos constitute the single largest nationality group in the crisis zone. Indian seafarers make up the second largest group at 22%, followed by Indonesians at 12%.

21 — confirmed attacks on commercial shipping since February 28, according to the IMO's verified incident tracker. That figure has tripled from seven in the first week of hostilities.

10 — seafarers killed in those attacks. Each one had a family waiting at home.

The Money

300% — the surge in war risk insurance premiums for vessels transiting the Gulf. Before the crisis, premiums ran at 0.02% to 0.05% of a vessel's insured value. They now stand at 0.5% to 1.0%.

$10-14 million — what it costs to insure a single VLCC voyage through the Strait of Hormuz today. That same voyage cost under $70,000 six weeks ago. This is the real blockade: economics, not just missiles.

$0 — the amount of hazard pay most stranded seafarers are receiving for remaining in a war zone past their contracted tour. The POEA Standard Employment Contract requires additional compensation for crew retained in war risk areas, but enforcement requires the seafarer to be repatriated first — creating a catch-22 that benefits no one aboard those vessels.

The Human Cost

The IMO described conditions aboard stranded vessels as involving "dwindling supplies, fatigue and severe psychological stress." Reports from crew indicate some vessels are rationing food. One young Indian sailor told reporters his crew is surviving on sugar and rice.

For Filipino seafarers, the crisis strikes at the heart of a national economic lifeline. The Philippines supplies approximately 25% of the world's merchant seafarers. Remittances from overseas Filipino workers — of which seafarers are a major component — totaled $37.2 billion in 2025. Every week that 7,000 Filipino crew remain stranded is a week their families feel the economic ripple.

The Department of Migrant Workers has yet to announce a dedicated repatriation corridor for Filipino seafarers in the Gulf. The IRGC's de facto control over which vessels transit the strait means that crew movements depend on a military force that has repeatedly demonstrated willingness to target commercial shipping.

What Happens Next

The April 2 ministerial briefing by the IMO Secretary-General was unprecedented in scale — 40 nations represented — but produced no binding commitments on crew repatriation. The dual-corridor system that has partially reopened Hormuz to commercial traffic prioritizes cargo, not crew welfare.

For the 7,000 Filipino seafarers waiting aboard vessels in the Gulf, the path home runs through a strait controlled by the IRGC, insured at prices that make transit economically irrational, and governed by an international framework that has no mechanism for forced crew repatriation from a war zone.

Bottom Line

The Hormuz crisis is not just an oil story or a geopolitics story. It is a labor crisis affecting 20,000 workers from developing nations who signed contracts to move cargo, not to serve as collateral in a conflict between nuclear powers. The 7,000 Filipinos among them represent the largest single group — and the one with the least international advocacy. Manila's silence is becoming conspicuous.