LONDON: Isolated and traumatized by drones and missiles, seafarers in the Gulf face grave mental suffering after more than two months stuck on board in the Middle East war, maritime charities warn.
From captains to cooks, engineers and other officers, the workers who keep global freight flowing have found themselves not just stranded but in some cases right in the firing line of the US-Israel war on Iran.
"We hear stories of how frightened they are. It's pretty scary," said Gavin Lim, head of the Crisis Response Network for the Sailors' Society, a UK-based seafarers' charity, who spoke with one crew whose vessel was hit.
"They thought: 'We were going to die'."
At least 11 seafarers have been killed, according to the International Maritime Organization.
"They see drones flying, they see missiles flying, and then we see instances where the ships get hit," said Lim.
‘Anxiety and fear’
"You can imagine that anxiety and fear building up. 'Are we just bait? Are we going to be a victim so that someone can make a point?'"
The Seafarers' Charity cites hypervigilance, burnout, fatigue, loneliness, depression and anxiety as some of the mental strains facing the 20,000 seafarers stranded by blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since Feb. 28.
Like the Sailors' Society, another sailors' helpline charity, the International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), fields calls from trapped workers and offers them practical and psychological support.
"Most of the calls are around repatriation -- what are their rights, how to go about it -- and also obviously the sort of the stress and the worry about being in a conflict zone and not being trained or prepared for it," said ISWAN's chief executive, Simon Grainge.
Training to cope
Some charities are working with shipping companies to strengthen support for seafarers under unprecedented strain.
"One of the things that quite a few organizations are now calling for is really up-to-date guidance on how to deal with wartime issues," Deborah Layde, chief executive of the Seafarers' Charity, said.
"This isn't something that a lot of shipping companies are ready for."
To that end, the charity has turned to mental health professionals to help provide guidelines and a webinar to guide seafarers to cope with the stress of the situation.
‘There's exhaustion’
"There's this constant higher level of stress and hypervigilance without that ability to reset as they might normally do. There's exhaustion," said Rachel Glynn-Williams, a psychologist working with seafarers who is involved in developing the webinar.
"At the point I pick up crew conversations, they will have been on hyper-alert for a sustained amount of time, so their nervous system will be heightened and it's going to take a little time, depending on the individual, for that nervous system to reset," she told AFP.
"For some people, it might be fairly soon afterwards, within a matter of days, if not hours. For others, it might take a little longer."
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