Nineteen Indian seafarers stranded in Yemen for the past two weeks have been evacuated and are on their way back home, with all of them safe, the Indian Embassy in Yemen said on Sunday, November 8. The men had been stranded in Hodeidah, the Red Sea port city in western Yemen, and in the capital Sana'a.

Source: The Hindu

India Today, reporting the same Embassy confirmation, said the seafarers were evacuated safely and were heading back to India. A photograph released with the Embassy's update shows the group with their bags in front of a bus, alongside officials. The reports did not name the seafarers, identify their vessel, or give the route or timing of their journey home, and no official statement beyond the evacuation confirmation had been published at the time of these reports.

Source: India Today

Why Yemen has become dangerous for Indian crews

Yemen sits on the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait, one of the world's busiest shipping corridors, and its waters have become steadily more dangerous since the wider West Asia conflict began in February 2026, with Houthi forces, Saudi-led operations and the US-Iran war all putting civilian shipping at risk. Indian crews are heavily exposed: India is the world's third-largest supplier of seafarers, with more than 300,000 sailors working across global shipping fleets, according to government data cited by Reuters.

Source: Reuters

More than a dozen Indian seafarers have been killed and three are missing in the Gulf and the wider West Asian maritime region since the conflict began in February, Reuters reported in October — the toll that has made every stranded-crew case in Yemeni waters an urgent consular priority for New Delhi.

Source: Reuters

The earlier yacht incident off the Yemeni coast

This evacuation is a separate case from the incident reported on October 23, when all 14 Indian nationals aboard a yacht involved in an incident off Yemen's coast were reported safe near Hodeidah. In that case, Yemen's Houthis claimed their forces were rescuing the boat after what they alleged was a Saudi attack near Zuqar Island in the Red Sea — a claim the Indian Embassy did not attribute to any force — and the Embassy said it would keep working for the men's well-being.

Source: Reuters

Our earlier report on the October yacht incident: All 14 Indians on yacht off Yemen coast reported safe, Embassy says

What happens next

The evacuated seafarers are on their way back home, according to the Embassy's confirmation reported on Sunday. Their arrival details in India have not been announced in the reports so far. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the Embassy or the Ministry of External Affairs releases the men's arrival schedule or further details of how the evacuation was carried out.