Just because piracy no longer features in the mainstream news, this doesn’t mean it has gone away. For those at sea there is a very real risk of coming to harm, from a crew member finding someone on deck in the middle of the night trying to steal mooring ropes, to armed hijackings. In fact, according to data from the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre, piracy in some areas is on the increase.
The figures are quite alarming, with 66 incidents taking place in the Q1 2018, up from 43 for the same period in 2017, and 37 in Q1 2016. This year, 100 crew have been taken hostage and 14 kidnapped from their vessels. In all so far this year, 39 vessels were boarded.
What is remarkable is the concentration of incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, which accounts for more than 40% of global attacks on vessels. Not all of these incidents were attempts to steal oil cargoes, as had been the pattern in the past. The pirates are moving up the ladder of criminality to kidnapping and holding crew for ransom. This requires a different type of risk assessment, and a different approach to operating in the region.
Fortunately, piracy and hijackings at sea are a part of shipping I am not overly familiar with, but I would be interested to hear of the practical solutions employed by those in the risk assessment sector.
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