The paradigm shift in sea piracy

Scourge intensifies in other regions as Somali sea piracy declines. With sea piracy incidents declining off the coast of Somalia, which had become unsafe for merchant shipping at one time, one sees a paradigm shift in sea piracy which has intensified in other regions of the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, the Gulf of Guinea, the Western Indian Ocean and some Caribbean islands. This paradigm shift in sea piracy also figured prominently during a recent two-panel event called Pan-African Maritime Goals for 2050 hosted by New York-based International Peace Institute (IPI). The IPI event served as a prelude to the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on Maritime Security and Development for Africa, which will be organized by the African Union in Lomé, Togo, from November 2 to 7, 2015. Prominent participants representing NGOs and non-NGOs, including Togo’s foreign minister Robert Dussey, highlighted at the IPI event not just the losses incurred in terms of ransom money paid and lives but also the effects on mercantile shipping and on the region’s economy. Oceans Beyond Piracy, a Colorado based organization which annually assesses the cost of maritime piracy, both economic and human, to the international community, released its latest report called The State of Maritime Piracy 2014, a few days before the IPL event, highlighting 2014 as a “year of improvement in the Western Indian Ocean”, with piracy attacks drastically declining because of higher surveillance, strong naval presence in the waters of the region, private armed guards on board the ships, etc.

While this report focuses on sea piracy in the Western Indian Ocean, which is largely a reference to the incidents around Somalia and other places off the coast of Africa, it includes, for the first time, a brief section on the human cost of piracy in Southeast Asia. According to Singapore-based ReCAAP (Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia) Information-Sharing Centre (ISC) and the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre, 3654 seafarers were subjected to attacks in Southeast Asia, with 800 seafarers facing violence or the threat of violence; 51% of such attacks involved the use of weapons. The OBP estimates that 40% of the seafarers affected by piracy were from countries within the Southeast Asian region. Physical abuse of seafarers was reported in 28% of the incidents. While the kidnappings for ransom model was absent in Southeast Asia – this posed a sharp contrast to the money demanded for release of seafarers kidnapped in the waters in and around Somalia – pirates often showed a callous disregard for seafarers in Southeast Asia; 64% of the attacks took place near the Malacca Strait with a 93% rate of pirates successfully boarding victim vessels. OBP’s annual report says that Southeast Asia recorded the highest rate of successful attacks of the three regions OBP assessed in this year’s report, the other two regions being Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Guinea. One reason for the higher number of incidents in Southeast Asia, says OBP, is the large geographical expanse of the region; Indonesia alone spans more than 2,800 nm. By comparison, the coastline between the Horn of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa is 3,300 nm long. There is a massive flow of shipping traffic through the Southeast Asian region – over 4,000 ships can be seen in the Malacca and Singapore Straits at any given time. The OBP report suggests that unlike Somali piracy, which occurred almost entirely in international waters, attacks on vessels in the Southeast Asian region took place primarily within the territorial seas, archipelagic waters, and the Exclusive Economic Zones of the region’s nine different countries. There was a feeling amongst participants in the IPI event that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to take urgent, unified action against transnational threats. Because maritime security issues affect only some – and not all - ASEAN member states, the organization has yet to provide an effective response to the increased threat of piracy. Bodies such as the ASEAN Maritime Forum (AMF) and Maritime Security Expert Working Group (MSEWG) are working to address problems associated with maritime security. Difference Between Piracy & Sea Robbery Some quarters draw a subtle difference between piracy and sea robbery. The Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), for instance, has emphasized this point because, it points out, sovereign states respond differently to each incident. The SSA commissioned a study that showed that a majority of the incidents in Southeast Asia – mostly against oil tankers - in the first quarter of 2015 should be classified as sea robbery, arguing that unlike piracy, which referred to attacks in international waters, sea robbery happens in territorial waters and thus falls under the littoral states’ jurisdiction. “The distinction determines whether a merchant vessel can seek protection from the navy/coastguard of the littoral state or from the navy/coastguard of the vessel’s flag of registry,” the SSA said. Incidentally, pirate attacks in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysian waters, have been the highest this year compared to the last five years, according to ReCAAP. With the inclusion of South China Sea, there were 25 incidents of piracy and robberies from January to March. Deepak Shetty, an Indian expert on mercantile shipping, who is the director general of shipping and an additional secretary in India’s Ministry of Shipping, said in an interview with the American Journal of Transportation that Somalia was the epicenter of piracy until three years ago. “Somalia no longer dominates piracy which is migrating to other regions,” he said. Indian seafarers were also kidnapped in the past but they were released; the last abducted Indian seafarer was released in November 2013 after spending a staggering four years and one month in captivity. Commenting on piracy in Southeast Asia, Shetty said that the region is largely safe. “Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are responsible nations, and they are capable of reacting effectively (to combat piracy). However, African nations are urged to pay attention to enforcement and bring to justice the pirates and their kingpins. One deterrent against piracy is to forfeit and freeze financial assets originating from piracy, and thus also prevent money-laundering and financing of terrorism,” he emphasized. Piracy has intensified in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, particularly in Nigerian waters. There has been a call to establish a “coast guard” in Nigeria to combat piracy, and also push for a piracy bill in the National Assembly. Although the African participants at the IPI event did not name any countries, the capability of countries in the Gulf of Guinea to combat sea piracy could also be raised at the Lomé summit. The summit itself could become a farce if it failed, as many such gargantuan meetings do, to produce an action-oriented document that clearly spells out the goals and solutions in the maritime sector. It was not without reason that Veronique Roger-Lacan, a French ambassador and the special representative in Charge of the Fight Against Maritime Piracy, vented out her frustration at the IPL event over the voluminous size of documents produced. “One should strive for a short, say, one or two-page document that is clear, concise and understandable,” she urged the African delegates. Security Guards no Longer on Ships? One question currently discussed is whether shipping lines will stop posting security guards on their ships with the sharp decline in Somali piracy. Keeping security guards on ships, after all, costs money. Armed guards constitute just one single layer of defense amongst many other layers, according to security experts. The current piracy situation in South East Asia is creating a critical problem for seafarer safety; while many ships may be passing with security guards on board through so-called High Risk Area infested by Somali pirates, the security guards reportedly disembark in Sri Lanka before the ships sail further east to Asia without any protection. “In South East Asia, pirates know they can get away with attacks because there is no coordinated response and vessels are pretty much undefended,” one expert said, preferring to remain anonymous.