The United Nations shipping agency announced on Tuesday that an evacuation plan is in place to allow hundreds of ships with some '11,000 seafarers stranded' in the Gulf, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

A spokesperson for the U.N. said: "We have now begun contacting the vessels to'start the evacuation. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), without mentioning a specific timeframe, said that they had begun contacting the ships to?start the evacuation.

The IMO stated that it had "secured the necessary safety guarantees" and has "thoroughly checked the conditions for safe navigaiton to support 'these operations'".

In a press release, IMO Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez stated that "this large-scale operation 'will -be -carried out in close collaboration with Iran, Oman and?all other coastal -states in the?region, the United States -and the maritime -industry." (Reporting and editing by Jonathan Saul)

(source: Reuters)