The surge in piracy near the coast of Somalia has created unease in far-off Russia, where sailors say they feel helpless as a growing number of seamen are taken hostage in brazen attacks.
“Sailors are completely defenceless against them,” said Alexei Ponomaroyov, a retired ship mechanic from the northern Russian port of Arkhangelsk with over 30 years of sailing experience, including in the Indian Ocean.
“All we can do is send out an SOS,” he said.
Pointing out that international law requires cargo crews to be unarmed, he said: “How are we merchant sailors supposed to protect ourselves? They come with machine guns in their speedboats.”
Five sailors from Arkhangelsk were among the hostages taken this month along with the CEC Future, a Danish-operated cargo ship, according to the Russian Sailors’ Union.
Arkhangelsk is an often ice-bound port in the far north of Russia where many sailors have gone to work for Western shipping companies since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hundreds of sailors are currently being held hostage on the Somali coast, with the largest number coming from Asian countries like the Philippines.
But there are also dozens from Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet states, including 21 from the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with combat tanks that pirates seized in September in one of their highest-profile captures to date.
That has ex-Soviet sailors worried, said Igor Kovalchuk, vice-president of the Russian Sailors’ Union.
“Sailors are a fairly courageous lot,” he said. “But on the other hand, this region is distinctly dangerous today, in the most direct sense of the word. It is dangerous for their life and health.”
Kovalchuk said that he had received phone calls from sailors worried about piracy. “Unfortunately there is nothing to tell them, and people have to work under the existing conditions,” he said.
Sailors’ advocates praised recent international efforts to fight the problem but insisted that more needed to be done.
“There is no unified command centre. There is no united plan for dealing with the problem,” said Mikhail Voitenko, editor of Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin, a Russian website that monitors the shipping industry.
“Basically, there is nothing,” he said.
At least one Russian sailor is taking matters into his own hands, according to the Sunday Times of London.
The newspaper reported last month that billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of London’s Chelsea football club, is having his next yacht outfitted with anti-pirate measures including a missile detection system, bulletproof windows and even an escape submarine.
Less affluent sailors will have to rely on a contingent of United States, Russian and European warships that have been dispatched to the region near Somalia in recent months.
Voitenko wryly noted that world leaders vowed to boost efforts against piracy only after increasing attacks — including the capture of a Saudi oil tanker two weeks ago — began to take a noticeable economic toll.
“The international community is finally beginning to do something now that it has affected the world economy,” he said.
Developed nations are also insulated from the problem because most merchant sailors no longer come from the affluent West. Most, especially rank-and-file crew members, are from poorer countries.
“The higher the standard of living somewhere, the less people are drawn to this fairly dangerous profession, the separation from one’s family and various dangers, including pirates,” Kovalchuk said.
“It is a truly dangerous career.” – AFP