When conflict disrupts global shipping routes like the Strait of Hormuz , vessels don’t always leave. Sometimes, they can’t. Across key maritime corridors in the Gulf region, ships have become stranded—some due to escalating hostilities, others because of a less visible failure: a global shipping system where ownership, regulation, and responsibility often do not align. For the people working on board, that failure can mean being unable to leave. A seafarer from Kerala, India, PK Vijay had taken out a loan for what he believed would be stable work at sea. His promised monthly salary was meant to support his family back home. “I was told I would be working on a ship,” Vijay says. “But when I got here, I was assigned to a scrap vessel.” He was told he would be transferred to another vessel. Months passed. The transfer he was promised never came. According to Vijay, both the agent who facilitated his employment and the ship’s owner eventually stopped responding to his calls.…