MSC Proposes Using Cruise Ships To Evacuate Stranded Seafarers From Persian Gulf
MSC Cruises has proposed using its idle cruise ships in the Persian Gulf to help evacuate thousands of stranded seafarers caught in the region amid ongoing military tensions and ship‑movement restrictions.
MSC Group’s Cruise Division executive chairman, Pierfrancesco Vago, told the Seatrade Cruise Global 2026 conference that several MSC vessels are effectively “stuck” in the Gulf because they cannot safely transit the Strait of Hormuz due to drone and missile attacks by Iran and accompanying regional military activity.
He said MSC is in talks with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) about redeploying these ships as evacuation platforms once conditions allow.
MSC’s flagship in the region, the MSC Euribia, has been docked in Dubai since early March with no firm departure date, and MSC has already reduced its onboard crew to minimum manning levels.
Other cruise lines’ ships, including TUI Cruises’ Mein Schiff 4 and 5, Celestyal’s Journey and Discovery, and Cruise Saudi’s Aroya, are similarly immobilized in ports such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, collectively offering a passenger capacity of about 17,000.
The IMO estimates that roughly 20,000 seafarers are trapped on some 600–700 vessels stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, including the six cruise ships in the Gulf.
Normal commercial traffic has dropped sharply, and no passenger ships have left the region since 1 March because of the security risks.
MSC’s proposal is to repurpose its cruise ships—currently sitting idle—to evacuate those seafarers once the international community and maritime authorities deem it safe to move.
The idea is to use the ships’ large cabins and life‑support infrastructure to transport crews away from the Gulf on organized humanitarian voyages, rather than leaving them indefinitely stranded on cargo and cruise vessels.
In parallel, MSC has already chartered flights and block‑booked seats on commercial airlines to repatriate thousands of passengers from the Euribia and other Gulf‑based cruises, showing the company’s broader role in moving people out of the war‑affected zone.
The cruise‑ship‑as‑evacuation‑vessel plan is still under discussion with the IMO and regional authorities and would only be activated when security conditions permit safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters.