ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre issued its Half-Yearly Report 2020 (January to June) revealing that the number of incidents almost doubled in comparison to the same period in 2019.
Accordingly, the report notes that 51 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia were reported in that timeframe.
Key Findings:
- A total of 51 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships (comprising 50 actual incidents and one attempted incident) were reported in Asia during January-June 2020
- This represents close to a two-fold increase in the total number of incidents and a two-fold increase in the number of actual incidents reported in Asia, compared to 28 incidents (comprising 25 actual incidents and three attempted incidents) during January-June 2019.
- Of the 51 incidents, 49 were incidents of armed robbery against ships and two were piracy incidents
However, the severity level of incidents worsened between January – June 2019:
- 1 incident of Category 1 (same as in 2019)
- Decrease of Category 2 (from 2 to 1 which is the lowest among the past 14-year period of 2007-2020)
- 74% of incidents were Category 4 (perpetrators not armed, crew not harmed)
Increased incidents were reported in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, South China Sea and Singapore Strait, while a concern was the continued increase of incidents on board ships while underway in the Singapore Strait during January-June 2020 with 16 incidents, compared to eight incidents during the same period in 2019.
In the meantime, the report notes that there were some areas of improvement observed, such as at the ports/anchorages in China with no incident during January-June 2020, compared to three incidents during the same period in 2019. Also, there were also arrests of perpetrators at Chittagong Anchorage in Bangladesh, off Gujarat and Alang in India, off Pulau Batam, Indonesia and in the Singapore Strait.
Mr. Masafumi Kuroki, Executive Director of ReCAAP ISC
We are deeply concerned with the nearly two-fold increase in the number of incidents reported in Asia in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, even though most of them are at low severity level.
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