Pakistan, April 28 -- There are some stories whose cruelty lies not in any single tragedy but in the everyday injustice they reveal. Maritime workers afloat in the Persian Gulf have become disposable tokens in a conflict they did not start. When the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told the UN Security Council on Monday that shipping and seafarers should never be used as leverage in geopolitical conflicts, he was not indulging in cliche.

At least 29 vessels have been attacked since the beginning of the crisis, resulting in the deaths of 10 seafarers and damage to many vessels. About 20,000 seafarers and 1,600 vessels?still remain in the Gulf.

The Strait of Hormuz carries a fifth of the worl...