Violent Crime Against Seafarers
MPHRP highlights the hardship inflicted upon seafarers and families Responding to recent articles and reports on current levels of maritime piracy, intentionally MPHRP highlighted the worrying trend that they appear to avoid the word "piracy" in favour of "new forms of criminality", specifically "attacks" and "hijacking". The technical differences denoted by these terms aside, a basic truth is veiled: that violent crime is committed against seafarers.Of Somali-based piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean - the one region where the term "piracy" is accurately applied - Hon. Abdalla Jama Saleh, the Minister for Maritime Transport, Ports and Counter Piracy for Puntland, states that the pirates are "not defeated but dormant." Jama Saleh is charged with leading Somalia's counter piracy efforts by working with the international community to fight piracy inland and along the coast of Puntland. He spoke to Defence IQ about the decline of piracy off the Somali coast and how that has now given rise to new maritime challenges in the Gulf of Aden. In tandem with his remarks, it must be noted that the international community's naval operations in the Indian Ocean, "Atalanta" and "Ocean Shield" have been extended until the end of 2016 amid ...
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