Caught Between Wars: Why Indian Seafarers Are Becoming Casualties of Global Geopolitics
The Invisible Diaspora That Keeps the World Moving
Every day, thousands of merchant ships cross the world’s oceans.
They carry oil.
Food.
Medicines.
Electronics.
Cars.
Governments monitor trade routes.
Markets track shipments.
Navies protect sea lanes.
But very few people stop to ask a much simpler question.
Who is actually sailing these ships?
Global trade does not move because ships exist.
It moves because people sail them.
Increasingly, many of those people are Indians.
They are not soldiers.
They are not diplomats.
They are not participants in war.
Yet they are increasingly becoming its unintended casualties.
In an era of weaponised trade, finance and energy flows, geopolitical conflicts increasingly travel along the same sea routes as global commerce.
The Diaspora Nobody Talks About
When discussions turn to the Indian diaspora, they usually centre on engineers in Silicon Valley.
Doctors in the United Kingdom.
Entrepreneurs in Dubai.
Scientists in American universities.
This is the visible Indian diaspora.
There is another diaspora that rarely enters public debate.
It works below deck rather than behind laptops.
Its workplace is not an office.
It is the open sea.
India today supplies nearly 3.5–5 lakh seafarers, accounting for approximately 10–12% of the global maritime workforce.
Every year, they contribute an estimated $6–9 billion to the Indian economy through remittances.
Yet despite helping keep global commerce moving, they remain one of the least visible sections of the Indian diaspora.
Their contribution becomes visible only when tragedy strikes.
Why Their Work Matters
The importance of Indian seafarers extends far beyond employment.
Around 90% of global trade by volume moves through the oceans.
For India, the dependence is even greater.
Nearly 95% of India’s trade by volume and around 85% of its crude oil imports travel by sea.
Every container, oil tanker and cargo vessel reaching India depends upon thousands of seafarers working quietly behind the scenes.
When maritime routes become unstable, supply chains are disrupted.
When seafarers become unsafe, global trade itself becomes vulnerable.
When Global Conflicts Reach Merchant Ships
For decades, merchant vessels were largely viewed as neutral commercial assets.
That assumption is rapidly disappearing.
The Red Sea crisis.
Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Sanctions.
Drone attacks.
Missile strikes.
Commercial shipping has increasingly become part of geopolitical conflict.
The growing weaponisation of trade, finance and energy flows has transformed commercial shipping from a neutral economic activity into an arena of geopolitical competition.
Merchant vessels are no longer merely transporting cargo.
They are operating in some of the world’s most contested strategic spaces.
At any given time, an estimated 20,000–23,000 Indian seafarers work in or transit through the Persian Gulf and adjoining waters.
For many of them, geopolitics is no longer something they read about in newspapers.
It has become part of their workplace.
The Day Global Politics Became Personal
This reality became painfully visible during the Settebello incident.
The vessel, carrying Indian crew members, became entangled in the wider web of sanctions, maritime insecurity and geopolitical confrontation that has increasingly engulfed the Red Sea and West Asian region.
The Indian sailors aboard were not participants in these conflicts.
They were merchant seafarers performing their professional duties.
Yet they found themselves caught in a geopolitical struggle involving states, sanctions, commercial shipping and maritime security.
The incident illustrated a disturbing reality.
Indian seafarers were no longer merely transporting global commerce.
They were increasingly becoming unintended participants in geopolitical conflicts that had little to do with India itself.
They were not endangered because they were Indian.
They were endangered because global trade itself had become a geopolitical battlefield.
The Human Erasure Behind Global Trade
Whenever geopolitical crises are discussed, the focus usually falls on oil prices.
Shipping insurance.
Supply chains.
Energy security.
Freedom of navigation.
Sanctions.
Rarely does the discussion begin with the people operating the ships.
The crew disappears behind the cargo.
The human story disappears behind the geopolitical story.
This is perhaps the greatest blind spot in our understanding of globalisation.
We measure containers.
Count tankers.
Analyse trade routes.
But rarely count the workers who make those routes possible.
Indian seafarers have therefore become what one observer describes as the “invisible workforce” of global trade.
Essential to the global economy.
Almost invisible in discussions about global security.
As one observer notes, “these seafarers often become innocent scapegoats in larger geopolitical conflicts.” Few descriptions better capture the paradox facing India’s maritime workforce today.
The New Frontline of Globalisation
The previous articles in this series examined why Indians migrate, how the diaspora became a strategic asset and why traditional migration routes are becoming more uncertain.
This article tells a different story.
Here, the challenge is no longer obtaining a visa.
It is surviving a voyage.
In the previous article, we saw that skilled migrants increasingly face administrative uncertainty as borders harden.
For Indian seafarers, the uncertainty is no longer administrative.
It is physical.
That transformation raises a profound question.
If global trade depends upon Indian workers, who protects them when geopolitics turns the sea into a battlefield?
That question lies at the heart of one of the least understood challenges facing the Indian diaspora today.
When Global Trade Offers No Safe Harbour
The deaths of Indian seafarers in conflict zones reveal a difficult reality.
The greatest danger they face is no longer storms.
Or piracy.
Or mechanical failure.
It is geopolitics.
Unlike soldiers, seafarers do not enter conflict voluntarily.
They sign employment contracts.
Not military commissions.
Yet they increasingly find themselves operating in regions where wars, sanctions and strategic rivalries have transformed commercial shipping into a geopolitical target.
The question is therefore no longer whether global trade is becoming more dangerous.
It is who bears the human cost when that danger materialises.
The Sovereignty Trap
One of the least understood features of global shipping is that responsibility is often difficult to identify.
Imagine an Indian seafarer working aboard a vessel.
The ship is owned by a Greek company.
Registered in Panama.
Insured in London.
Carrying Russian oil.
Passing through Iranian waters.
Escorted by an American naval coalition.
Crewed largely by Indians and Filipinos.
If that ship is attacked, who protects the crew?
The answer is far less straightforward than most people imagine.
This is the sovereignty trap.
The worker carries an Indian passport.
Almost every other legal relationship surrounding the vessel belongs to another country.
When conflict erupts, responsibility becomes fragmented precisely when protection is needed most.
The Hidden World of Flags of Convenience
This complexity is reinforced by a practice known as Flags of Convenience.
Many merchant vessels are registered in countries different from those of their owners.
The arrangement lowers operating costs and simplifies regulations.
It also creates legal ambiguity.
A ship may be owned in Greece, registered in Panama, insured in London, crewed by Indians and operating in international waters.
When conflict erupts, determining who owes legal responsibility to the crew becomes extraordinarily complicated.
Globalisation has made trade more efficient.
It has also made accountability far more diffuse.
Can International Law Really Protect Seafarers?
Many assume that international maritime law automatically protects commercial sailors.
The reality is more complicated.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) establishes important principles governing navigation and maritime conduct.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) develops global safety standards.
Yet neither possesses the enforcement capacity to prevent geopolitical conflicts from spilling into commercial shipping routes.
International law works most effectively when states cooperate.
Geopolitical conflict often begins when that cooperation breaks down.
The legal framework exists.
Its ability to protect ordinary workers during armed confrontation remains limited.
India Can Respond, But It Cannot Control the Seas
India has not remained passive.
Through Operation Sankalp, the Indian Navy has strengthened deployments in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf region.
Naval vessels have escorted merchant ships.
Responded to distress calls.
Protected commercial routes.
The Directorate General of Shipping has also advised Indian seafarers to verify the ownership, sanction status and operational profile of vessels before accepting employment.
These measures are important.
But they also expose the limits of national power.
How can an ordinary seafarer realistically assess complex sanctions, ownership structures and geopolitical risks before boarding a ship?
The burden of managing geopolitical uncertainty is increasingly falling upon individual workers rather than the international system.
When Globalisation Outsources Risk
One of the hidden consequences of globalisation is that it distributes benefits and risks very differently.
Consumers receive cheaper goods.
Companies reduce transportation costs.
Global supply chains become more efficient.
But the risks are often transferred to workers operating far from public attention.
In the previous article, we saw that highly skilled migrants increasingly face administrative uncertainty as immigration systems become more restrictive.
For Indian seafarers, the uncertainty is no longer administrative.
It is physical.
Globalisation has internationalised opportunity.
It has also internationalised risk.
Ordinary workers now find themselves navigating conflicts they neither created nor influence.
Beyond Maritime Security
It is tempting to view these incidents simply as questions of maritime security.
That would miss their larger significance.
The challenge is not merely protecting ships.
It is protecting the people aboard them.
Every discussion about energy security ultimately depends upon seafarers transporting oil.
Every conversation about supply chains depends upon crews moving goods across oceans.
Every debate about global trade depends upon workers navigating increasingly dangerous waters.
Ships do not move on their own.
They move because people sail them.
The Human Cost of Geopolitics
India today supplies nearly one in every ten seafarers in the world.
That makes the country one of the indispensable contributors to global maritime commerce.
It also means that geopolitical instability increasingly carries a direct human cost for Indian families.
The success of the Indian diaspora is often measured through remittances.
Investment.
Innovation.
Soft power.
Another measure deserves equal attention.
Safety.
Because the value of global opportunity cannot be separated from the risks that accompany it.
The Question the World Must Answer
For centuries, the sea connected civilizations.
Today, it increasingly exposes ordinary workers to conflicts they did not create.
Ships still carry the cargo that powers the global economy.
But they also carry people.
People whose names rarely appear in discussions about sanctions, maritime strategy or geopolitical rivalry.
The Indian seafarer has become one of the most invisible participants in global politics.
Not because they shape international conflict.
But because they are increasingly forced to live with its consequences.
As India seeks to strengthen its role as a leading maritime nation, the challenge extends beyond protecting sea lanes.
It is ensuring that the people who keep those sea lanes open are not forgotten.
Because until global politics begins protecting the people who move world trade—not merely the cargo they transport—Indian seafarers will remain among the most invisible casualties of an increasingly fragmented world.