MANILA - Two Filipino seafarers were killed in separate attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea this month.
The Department of Migrant Workers said on July 20 that nine ships carrying about 139 Filipino crew members had reportedly been attacked during the preceding two weeks. Twelve seafarers were injured, one remained missing and 124 were confirmed safe and unharmed, according to the department’s Black Sea casualty report.
Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the attacks were carried out primarily through drone strikes while vessels were transiting or berthed at ports in Ukraine and Russia.
Most of the affected ships were bulk carriers or oil-product tankers damaged while alongside ports, at anchor or shortly after departure. The department did not attribute responsibility for the attacks.
The first Filipino fatality occurred during an attack on July 6, Cacdac said, and the second worker was killed on July 19. Officials had contacted the first victim’s family and were arranging the return of his remains, while outreach to the second worker’s relatives was under way when the department held its briefing.
Four of the 12 injured seafarers had returned to the Philippines. The other eight had disembarked from their vessels and were receiving medical treatment and psychological support at an undisclosed location.
The International Maritime Organization had condemned a renewed series of attacks on civilian merchant vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov on July 13.
“Seafarers should never become casualties of conflicts to which they are not a party,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in the organization’s official statement.
The northern Black Sea is classified as a high-risk or warlike area under DMW Advisory 41, series of 2026. Cacdac urged shipowners to avoid or reroute voyages through the area where possible and said Filipino seafarers must be told before departure that they may refuse to sail into designated danger zones.
The incident affects a workforce deployed on a large scale across international shipping. The latest full-year DMW deployment statistics recorded 589,179 overseas deployments of Filipino seafarers in 2025, compared with 549,339 in 2024.
