A New Start for Released Hostages
Hostages from MV ICeberg 1 finally arrived home after over 1000 days in captivity "It was truly like being born again. We had given up hope and suddenly we were brought back to life," one of the surviving crew members of the MV ICEBERG 1 said as he was released on his birthday, after being held hostage for over 1000 days by pirates off the coast of Somalia.After almost three years in captivity, the hostages of the ship were set free in December 2012 and the UNPOS Counter Piracy Unit arranged for the repatriation of the crew members and flew to Bossaso on 30 December to receive them.For two years and nine months the 22 surviving hostages endured terrible treatment.Part of the crew had just joined the vessel two days prior to the hijacking, not knowing they would remain there for almost three years under miserable conditions. The crew was tortured and beaten on a regular basis. At times they had to resort to drinking salt water in order to survive and they were forced to work in life threatening conditions. One crew members had his ears cut off, another lost vision in one eye due to ruthless beatings and ...
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