{"id":4188,"date":"2026-11-11T11:03:49","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T06:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4188"},"modified":"2026-11-11T11:03:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T06:03:49","slug":"missing-sailors-leave-families-desperate-for-answers-after-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4188","title":{"rendered":"Missing sailors leave families desperate for answers after Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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 the hope that he will return, crying as \u200bshe replays old voice notes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kumar was one of six crew members assigned to work on two Iran-linked cargo vessels last seen in Iranian waters in May before disappearing. The vessels\u2019 fate is still unclear.<\/p>\n

Commercial ships \u200chave come under fire since the US-Israeli war on Iran<\/a> began on February 28.<\/p>\n

Tehran 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.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s International Maritime Organisation has confirmed 130 \u201cincidents\u201d \u2013 mainly attacks \u2013 in the region since the conflict began, with at least 25 seafarers killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot bear this pain,\u201d Pandiselvi, 45, told Reuters from her one-bedroom house in the city of Dindigul in southern India\u2019s Tamil Nadu state, struggling to keep her composure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need anyone to tell you what a parent would go through if they \u200bwere to lose their child. We appeal to everyone involved to please come forward and help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuters spoke to shipping sources, Iraqi officials and the families of missing sailors in Iraq\u2019s Basra and India\u2019s Tamil Nadu state to reveal \u200bthe human cost of Hormuz attacks.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Kumar\u2019s family took on considerable debt for him to complete a marine course and pursue his dream of working as a sailor, after which he \u2060left for a six-month crew contract he was told was based in Dubai. A week in, he found himself in Iran, to the consternation of his family.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Every minute is agony\u2019<\/h3>\n

Even before war broke out three months later, Kumar\u2019s family was desperately trying to \u200brepatriate him. Then came radio silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mental condition had deteriorated into madness; I sent desperate messages,\u201d Pandiselvi said, adding she was sending him voice notes without any replies to a number she had saved as \u201cNaveen Mariner\u201d with an anchor emoji.<\/p>\n

The family keeps the line \u200bactive in the hope their son picks up. A neighbour described her as listening to messages over and over, in tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cA terrifying question mark hangs over his fate: Is he still on that ship, or has something terrible happened to him? It\u2019s causing a lot of confusion. Every passing minute is agony,\u201d Pandiselvi said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s list of incidents.<\/p>\n

Iraq said in May it was monitoring the disappearance of the two vessels, which flew the Bolivian flag. No distress signals \u200bwere received. Gulf ports requested information after communications with the crew were lost.<\/p>\n

Khaled Saad al-Thaalibi, who heads the Iraqi maritime foundation in Basra, told Reuters the latest available information indicated the vessels\u2019 Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmitted their last known position approximately 8 nautical miles \u200bfrom Iran\u2019s Kish Island on May 9 at 4:50pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Thaalibi \u200ctold Reuters from \u2060his office in Basra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know if the vessels sank or were confiscated by a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other Bridge 1 and 2 crew members missing are three Iraqis, one Pakistani and another Indian.<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with the matter said the vessels were involved in Iranian trade and were carrying steel.<\/p>\n

<\/a>No answers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Haider Rahman al-Mayahi, a 22-year-old Iraqi sailor, was on the crew, his brother Youssef Rahman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left behind a one-year-old daughter and a father who suffered a stroke from the grief of his disappearance,\u201d he told Reuters, breaking down in tears.<\/p>\n

Al-Mayahi\u2019s family travelled to Iran seeking answers. They located the vessels\u2019 owner, whom they identified only as an Iranian who told them he had no information on the vessels.<\/p>\n

The family received conflicting theories about the vessels.<\/p>\n

Some shipping sources said they may have been struck by the \u200bUS and sunk immediately, while others speculated the crew had \u200bbeen detained by a Gulf state or Iran.<\/p>\n

The Iranian agent \u2060who hired the Iraqi sailors did not respond to phone calls from Reuters.<\/p>\n

Kumar\u2019s family took out around 1.5 million Indian rupees ($16,000) in loans for him to complete his maritime training course and is now struggling with the financial burden.<\/p>\n

They contacted the local agency that hired Kumar, Mumbai-based firm Lascar Marine, initially receiving assurances that he would return soon.<\/p>\n

People from the agency later told the family they \u200bhad no information. After that, calls went unanswered, the family said.<\/p>\n

The agency did not reply to repeated calls from Reuters.<\/p>\n

An order dated May 22, published on a government website, showed \u200bIndia\u2019s Seamen\u2019s Employment Office withdrew the recruitment \u2060license of Lascar Marine Services and barred its past and present directors from maritime business for five years, citing repeated failures to repatriate seafarers \u2014 including Kumar \u2014 or pay their wages.<\/p>\n

The director of Seamen\u2019s Employment Office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.<\/p>\n

Crew working aboard ships are usually contracted by agents like Lascar Marine and hired on six-month contracts. Since the Iran war, costs of hiring sailors have tripled, with many working just one journey as risks mount.<\/p>\n

One Dubai-based shipper told Reuters a crew member may make what they used to make \u2060in seven months \u200bin only two and then opt to go home.<\/p>\n

A captain, the highest-paid crew member on a vessel, could make around $8,000 to $13,000 a month before \u200bthe conflict. Now they can earn three times that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey ask for three months\u2019 pay per month, but after seeing what a journey entails, they sometimes quit after one trip,\u201d the shipper said.<\/p>\n

For Pandiselvi, Kumar\u2019s mother, the allure of good pay is now meaningless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked tirelessly to secure our children\u2019s careers and future,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, \u200bseeing everything that has happened, we are left wondering what our lives have come to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 the hope that he will return, crying as \u200bshe replays old voice notes. Kumar was one of six crew members assigned to work on two Iran-linked cargo vessels last seen in Iranian waters in May before disappearing. The vessels\u2019 fate is still unclear. Commercial ships \u200chave come under fire since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28. Tehran attacked ships to assert control…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}