UN and IMO call again for action on piracy
November 25, 2011
The UN Security Council has made renewed calls on states and regional organisations that have the ability to fight piracy, to do so.
They should deploy naval ships, arms and military aircraft to seize “vessels and any other equipment used to carry out acts of maritime piracy, or for which there is reasonable ground to suspect that they will be put to such use”.
Meanwhile the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has also renewed calls for more co-ordination to fight piracy and greater pressure at the highest political levels for the release of hostages.
At the 27th session of the IMO’s governing body this week, Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos said the escalation of piracy off the coast of Somalia was a “matter of grave concern”.
An IMO action plan aims to increase political pressure to secure the release of all hostages being held by pirates, to review and improve the IMO guidelines to administrations and seafarers and promote compliance with industry best management practices and the recommended preventive, evasive and defensive measures ships should follow.
It also aims to promote greater levels of support from, and coordination with, navies and states.
Courtesy of IFW
Mitropoulos said that, while the percentage of attacks that proved successful for the pirates had dropped to less than 20% this year, many seafarers were “going about their daily business in ships wrapped in razor wire in a state of constant wariness as they ran the gauntlet of pirate gangs”.
To underline the seriousness of the situation, he added that - at the close of business last week - there were 15 ships held in Somalia, with 311 seafarers captured.
