‘Scary explosions, sleepless nights’: Sailor who escaped Iraq war zone recounts trauma, says he won’t return

Of his six months at sea, Pereira received his promised salary of $300 for only one month. His family had paid ₹400,000 to an agent for his job.

A day after returning from the war-torn waters of Iraq, where he was stranded on the Iraqi vessel ‘Diva’ in the port of Basra, Rex Pereira swore that he would never return to the shipping sector.

Seafare Rex Pereira shows a video of a bombing near Basra port in Iraq on his phone. Rex Pereira, along with his family, addressed the media at the Forward Seamen's Union of India (FSUI) office in South Mumbai. (Raju Shinde/HT photo)

The traumatised sailor recalled the “scary explosions” near their ships, the frightened crews with bags packed and ready to flee anytime, and their sleepless nights keeping a watch for sudden attacks. He spoke of how he and his three Indian shipmates would video-record explosions on nearby ships, and told HT that they would send the videos to, and share updates with, the Indian Embassy.

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Hailing from Bhayander’s East Indian community, Pereira moved from a job in the airline sector to work as a sailor in October 2025 but ended up suffering harrowing experiences. After returning home on Monday, he recounted these: food shortages, unpotable water, false promises by agents, being sent on discarded ships, the difficulties involved in approaching the authorities, and scared seafarers stuck on various abandoned ships in the war-torn Gulf waters.

“There were times when we got food stocks or fish from the crews of passing ships,” he said. “At other times, we couldn’t even boil the contaminated drinking water because fuel supplies ran low. The Iraqi owners had abandoned their ships but urged us to stay on board by luring us with the promise of a higher salary.”

Of his six months at sea, Pereira received his promised salary of $300 for only one month. His family had paid ₹400,000 to an agent for his job. “My son was promised a job on an oil supply vessel and instead was put on some other discarded vessel,” said Rex’s father Chester Pereira. “The agent didn’t even bother to respond during our difficult time. The government should act against agents who make false promises.”

Pereira said that the day he landed, the Iraqi owners and seniors abandoned the ship. “With only four employees, the ship was operating with minimal maintenance, a dysfunctional engine and a constantly tripping generator,” he said. “Once, a part of the ship’s engine exploded, resulting in burn injuries on my hand and my colleague’s face. Yet another time, the generator completely failed, disconnecting me from my family for four days.”

As the war stretched, Pereira said the ship owners realised that he wanted to return home, and took away his documents under the guise of processing his paperwork. “The Indian Embassy staff visited me on the ship but was deterred by the lack of documentation,” he said. He then approached the Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI), which wrote to the government and managed to get the Iraqi authorities to process his paperwork.

The US-Israel-Iran war, in which three Indian sailors have died and one remains missing, has sent shock waves through seafarers in Gulf countries. The FSUI estimates that over 22,000 Indian seafarers are stuck in the Gulf stream, higher than the 20,000 estimated by the International Maritime Organisation.

Manoj Yadav, general secretary of FSUI, said that he kept getting distress calls from nearly 200 Indian seafarers stuck on over 100 ships along the Gulf ports. “The challenge is that the roads, the sea and even the airlines are badly impacted by the war,” he said. “Besides, there are practical difficulties—for instance, many seafarers lack paperwork. The Indian government should arrange for their safe passage home.”

Yadav has now demanded that the Indian government write to the Iranian port authorities to retrieve the crew details of all Indians working on ships in the Gulf waters, reach out to them and ensure their repatriation.