Tag: hostages

ITF urged Houthis to halt attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, to de-escalate threats to shipping and release seafarers held hostage.

On November 19, 2023, while travelling through the Red Sea, armed Houthis boarded the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier leased by the Japanese shipping corporation NYK, using a helicopter.

Sixteen maritime industry associations and social partners (ASA, BIMCO, CLIA, ECSA, INTERCARGO, INTERMANAGER, INTERTANKO, IAPH, ICS, IFSMA, IMCA, IMEC, IPTA, ITF, FONASBA and WSC) have co-signed a letter calling for all member states to be formally reminded of their responsibilities under international law, and ask for the release the seafarers and to protect the safe transit of ships.

The seizure of container ship MSC Aries by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz, on April 13, poses a major issue for the maritime industry, as it threatens to further jeopardize trade lanes in the Middle East.

After the recent piracy incident off Gulf of Guinea, where pirates killed a seafarer and took another 15 seafarers from the container ship MV Mozart, ITF urges governments to immediately act.

The 15 crewmembers who were kidnapped from the containership Mozart last weekend are good in their health, the vessel operator Boden Shipping informed. 

Recent reporting indicates that the Liberian flagged container ship MV Mozart had been boarded approximately 98nm NW of Sao Tome. 15 crew were taken with one crew member killed.

According to Iranian officials and the nonprofit Hostage Support Network, Somali pirates released an Iranian fisher after more than four years in captivity. According to John Steed, an HSN negotiator, he was released as the Somali pirates were unsure about whether he would survive.

The pirate captain who is considered responsible for the kidnapping of 11 crew from the container ship, FWN Rapide on 21 April 2018 off Nigeria, was intercepted by Interpol in South Africa. Now he fights extradition to the Netherlands in court. During the proceedings, the suspect was claiming that the authorities have caught the wrong man.

After they had seized the vessel in Somali waters some days earlier, Somali pirates took 11 crew members of an Indian cargo dhow captive, although the Somali security forces responded to the incident and managed to rescue the vessel, on April 10th.