Vietnam asks vessels with Vietnamese on board to avoid passing through Red Sea
Thursday, March 28, 2024, 15:29 GMT+7
The Department of Overseas Labor under the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has required Vietnamese enterprises to urge their partners which use Vietnamese sailors on vessels to avoid shipping routes to the Middle East and Africa through the Red Sea or suspend the operation on these routes.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the department said tensions in the Middle East are escalating, especially in areas near the Red Sea.
The Houthis have been regularly attacking ships and vessels in the sea, threatening the navigation safety there.
On March 6, True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged cargo ship, with 20 crew members on board, including four Vietnamese, faced a missile attack by Houthi forces off the coast of Yemen while traveling from Singapore to Saudi Arabia. The strike resulted in the death of three sailors, including a Vietnamese.
The Department of Overseas Labor forecast the situation would remain complicated in the coming time.
The maritime insecurity will not be limited to the Middle East but may spread to South Asia and Africa, according to the department.
It asked local enterprises to work with their partners that employ Vietnamese sailors and inform Vietnamese laborers of the situation so that they can weigh keeping working on vessels traveling on routes to the Middle East and Africa or not.
Vietnamese firms must also regularly keep a close watch on the state of Vietnamese laborers on foreign vessels.
The Red Sea crisis began in October 2023, when the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen launched missiles and armed drones at Israel.
The Houthis have since seized and launched aerial attacks against merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea.
The Red Sea, which leads to the Suez Canal, lies on the key east-west trade route from Asia's manufacturing hubs to Europe and onto the east coast of the Americas.
About 12 percent of world shipping traffic accesses the Suez Canal via its waters, according to Reuters.
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