A Message from the Secretary General of the Mission to Seafarers
As I joined shipping’s great and good at the International Maritime Organization’s headquarters in London to witness United Nation’s chief Ban Ki-moon stamping his authority on the anti-piracy plan, half a world away in Mombasa a young Turk on his first voyage told my colleagues that he was ripping up his contract rather than venture out into the Indian Ocean ever again.
Who would blame him? With more than 700 seafarers held captive, pirate motherships attacking with ever greater audacity, ferocity and impunity, and multiplying reports of torture and abuse against hostages, it has been a grim start to the year of orchestrating the response to piracy.
At its outset, I sent an investigative team to Mombasa to talk to frontline staff at our Mission to Seafarers station, hear from officers and ratings on board ships and to quiz the new commander of the EU Naval Force, Rear Admiral Juan Rodriguez, about plans for
Orchestration Year. What they reported reinforces the mission’s belief that there is an urgent need to provide reliable defence for the men and women daily sent into harm’s way.
As everybody in the business now knows, where no effective security is offered by either flag states or shipowners, vessels fall back on make-do deterrents such as water cannon, ‘scarecrow’ lookouts and ringlets of frizzy grey razor wire.
“We try not to think about it, but there’s every chance that we’ll be caught this trip,” said chief officer Sotero Flores. “We pass through the no-go areas and just hope we won’t be attacked. We have wire and we’ll perform double watches, but we can’t deal with rocket-propelled grenades, or automatic weapons. We can do nothing but pray we don’t get caught.”