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Capt. John Dickie, Secretary General, IFSMA gave a presentation entitled”Anti Piracy, Human Rights and other untold stories’‘ at the 2015 SAFETY4SEA Athens Forum. He started his presentation with a statement made from research that ” Piracy and Armed Robbery are here to stay for the foreseeable future” and explained that this not only shows a disturbing trend but also that the overwhelming and long term problem lies in the South China Sea. He stated that it is a non-disputable fact that armed security guards carried on board ships have been successful as there are no reported successful hijacking on a ship under way and carrying such personnel on board. He debated on IMB’s concerns over the decision to compensate pirates and questioned the issue from the seafarers’ perspective as they do have human rights and although they are abused, no compensation has evered received.
My presentation deals with Anti-piracy, Human Rights and other untold stories. The threat of piracy is not over. Its not gone away. It is here to stay and its global. As we squeeze one part of the world, like we do in the Horn of Africa, with military warships, it is going elsewhere. We had for example the Gulf of Guinea, or South China Sea which are different areas. The question is how we would take care of whats going to happen while there are some major inconsistencies. It is the shipping industry itself that solves piracy problem with pressure on the IMO and Flag States to implement what it is needed.
Where Piracy Strikes (please click on image for a larger view)
From 2008 to 2011, there was really high number of incidents in East Africa and especially in the Horn of Africa. It is time to forget the concept that pirates are poor fishermen and poor people that have no other choice. Piracy is a complex, international business model as there are people who are making a lot of money. As time goes on, we are revealing more and more that piracy is linked to organized crime and terrorism. Regarding the Mediterranean Sea, the people migrant crisis increases and regrettably Greece has been in the brunt of it with no real help from the EU. In the Horn of Africa if we remove the warships, the piracy will be back within three months and we will have gangs working from both sides from the Gulf of Aden against merchant ships.
In addition, there are the human rights of pirates. It has been reported that IMB is concerned over a decision to compensate pirates. But what about the victims? Nobody gives a damn for the victims. The companies do because their crew has been abused. But this only happens in Europe as pirates who attack ships, they are attained to the European country where they will be processed. Because they are away from their families, their families are brought to the country to reside where the process of court and the imprisonment is done. Then, during the imprisonment, they go through a process getting their nationality, and then they live in Europe happier ever. This is absolutely ridiculous! As we see, nobody gives a penny for the human rights of victims who they are suffer from physical abuse, stress, falls, and executions.
We must take care of the perpetrator, they are poor people that need to be helped many people say. To me, its time to stop this nonsense. If you were engaged in an act of piracy it means that you have stepped outside of civil society and the laws that govern them. Therefore, you are not subject to the rule of law as it stands, the law of society doesnt apply to you. Believe it or not, on the statute books of the United Kingdom, there is a rear convention for committing an act of piracy on the high seas that is not used. It is still there but nobody wants to use. Maybe this is not the right answer, but to me, we should get active pirates removed permanently from the South.
But what about the future? What we really need to do? Should we build ships specifically built with systems to withstand piracy attacks? Possibly we can do it. Technology is there. The systems are also there. But who has the money to invest additional millions in specifically building the ships with systems to withstand piracy attacks? Do we continue with armed guards on board? It is difficult to say no as no ship has been hijacked while armed guards are on board, but as areas of piracy increase then the carriage of guards increases. Does this become part of the cost of doing business? Do we arm ships and train crews in weapons and have an armoury on board? Difficult to do as this would need to pass through the IMO and would change the status of the ship types that we have at the moment. But if enough support was given then it might work
Another important issue is Seafarers Rights. This is something Ive been dealing with IMO. There is a Convention of Human Rights, I thought seafarers were human beings and came under such legislation
Or are we a separate species to the rest of the human race? What I can say is that through my travels I have met some people who might challenge this definition. I think we all have met someone in our travels who can challenge this. But the battle is being fought at the IMO through the Legal Committee
A new type of seafarer is the industrial personnel. This has been proposed to the IMO. It is mainly in response to the wind farm industry but has further ramifications for once SOLAS starts being changed then how many more new categories would arrive for niche sectors? But is this really needed when we already have definitions for personnel on special purpose ships? Change is necessary but is it always for the good or change for changes sake? I am sure many of you know about this but have you thought of the ramifications if this is successful? Also, professional Indemnity Insurance is becoming more and more a matter of what a future comes for seafarers.
Above article is an edited version of Mr. Dickie’s presentation during the 2015 SAFETY4SEA Forum which successfullyconcluded on Wednesday 7thof October 2015in Eugenides Foundation Athens attracting1100 delegates from 30 countries representing a total of 480 organizations.
Click here to view his presentation video
