“Seafarers,” the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) says in its Guidelines on Fair Treatment of Seafarers, “are recognized as a special category of worker, given the global nature of the shipping industry and the different jurisdictions that they may be brought into contact with, and need special protection, especially in relation to contacts with public authorities.”
It is under this spirit that the IMO and other agencies have urged governments to promote the guidelines and to monitor how effectively they are being implemented.
As an oceanic country with the sixth-largest offshore fishing industry in the world, Taiwan is only now taking steps to combat piracy on the high seas.
PHOTO: AFP
What shook Taiwan from its stupor was the death during a NATO-led counter-piracy operation on May 10 of Wu Lai-yu (吳來于), captain of the Taiwan-flagged Jih Chun Tsai No. 68, which had been used by Somali pirates as a mother ship since its seizure on March 30 last year, . The ship was sunk after the operation.
In interviews with the Taipei Times, people with first-hand experience of pirates targeting fishing vessels said they sympathized with the government both in terms of prevention and rescue — comments that countered the criticism leveled at the government by lawmakers.
Hsieh Lung-yin (謝龍隱), owner of the Win Far No. 161, a 700-tonne tuna long-liner released in February last year after being held by Somali pirates for 11 months, said Win Far Group convinced the pirates to release the ship “all by ourselves.”
“To be honest, despite being willing to help, the government was helpless because it did not have any connections whatsoever,” Hsieh said by telephone.
Ni Hui-ling (倪惠玲), who handled ransom negotiations with pirates for six months in 2005 leading to release of the Hsin Lien Fa No. 36 and the Cheng Ching Feng, said what the government could do to help in rescue operations “was limited.”
The Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau (IBM-PRC) says the number of pirate attacks against ships worldwide has risen, with 445 attacks last year, compared with 239 in 2006, 263 in 2007, 293 in 2008 and 410 in 2009.
More than half, or 219, of the attacks last year were attributed to Somali pirates, it said, adding that hijackings off the coast of Somalia accounted for 92 percent of all ship seizures.
In the first six months of this year, the center said the number of attacks by Somali pirates was “the highest ever,” accounting for 163 of the 266 incidents worldwide.
Somali pirates were negotiating for the release of 20 vessels and 420 crew, said the agency, the only manned center to receive reports of pirate attacks 24 hours a day.
Since 2005, a year that saw an upsurge in pirate attacks and hijackings off the coast of Somalia, 10 Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels have been attacked by Somali pirates.
Among those, six were captured by pirates and then released on ransom, one was released without ransom, one escaped hijacking, the Jih Chun Tsai No. 68 was sunk and the Hsiuh Fu No. 1, which the government suspects was hijacked by Somali pirates on Dec. 25, has since been out of contact.
“In recent years, negotiations have gotten tougher than in the years when piracy began rising. Pirates keep hostages for a longer period [of time] and demand higher ransoms,” said Huang Hung-yan (黃鴻燕), director of the Deep Seas Fisheries Division of the Fisheries Agency.
Asked about their experience in negotiating ransom payments, ship owners tend to keep a low profile.
In the case of Win Far No. 161, the Win Far Group turned to negotiators and professional ransom handlers from foreign firms, which, according to informed sources, usually charge rates that are out of reach for many.
“The negotiations lasted for 11 months, tiring us out. And we faced pressure from the families of the hostages during negotiations. It was almost unbearable. After it [the ship] was released, we decided to pull our entire fleet from the Indian Ocean,” Hsieh said.
After the ransom was settled, how to safely deliver it was also a problem, Ni said.
“In our case, ransom was delivered to the pirates via a third party in a third country. There were different Somali factions and each of them trusted their own middlemen. We were lucky to find out at the last minute that a man who claimed he was a go-between was actually a swindler, and we finally gave the ransom to the right person,” Ni said.
In the case of the Jih Chun Tsai No. 68, Zhou Diandong (周殿東), a self-proclaimed ambassador to China for Somaliland, an unrecognized autonomous region of Somalia, approached Wu’s family, offering to help negotiate for a US$1 million commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.
When negotiations between Wu’s family and the pirates reached a sticking point between June and August last year, Zhou posted articles on his blog detailing how the pirates severely beat Wu to pressure Wu’s family into accepting the offer, the ministry said.
The ministry eventually determined that Zhou was a fake broker with no access to the pirates and informed the family.
Earlier this year, AON Corp, a leading global insurance brokerage and consultancy, introduced piracy insurance services to officials from the ministry and the Fisheries Agency, as well as freight operators and owners of fishing vessels.
Piracy insurance products are tailor-made to cover anything from seizure of a vessel and crew, reimbursement for ransom, loss of ransom in transit, fees and expenses for consultation, as well as reasonable additional costs as defined by piracy and personal accident insurance, AON director Carol Chen (陳淑貞) said.
The ever-growing threat of Somali piracy has encouraged shipping companies to take out piracy insurance, which is offered by less than 10 insurance companies worldwide.
However, none of the policies is designed for fishing vessels, Chen said.
For hijacking, insurance can cover all problems ship owners may encounter, but insurance companies are not in favor of providing coverage for fishing vessels, which they categorize as “high risk,” she said.
“Fishing vessels are more vulnerable to hijacking because of their low speed and low sides, which makes it easier for pirates to board. Some underwriters even require that ships meet certain criteria to be eligible for coverage. For example, they should be equipped with citadels, have armed people onboard, or be escorted by military frigates,” Chen said.
The IMB-PRC report says that during the first six months of this year, the types of vessels that were attacked the most were bulk carriers, followed by tankers carrying chemical products or crude oil, container ships, tugs, general cargo ships, vehicle carriers and fishing trawlers.
Asked how the fishing industry regards insurance, Tsai Bao-hsing (蔡寶興), -director-general of a fishermen’s association in Siaoliouciou, said most ship owners and fishermen would not consider it because of the “very high premium costs.”
“Some also doubt it works — even merchant ships cannot resist pirates,” he said.
The owner of a fishing vessel said on condition of anonymity that the premium for a fishing boat operating in regions designated as “high risk of piracy” could be more than US$3 million per voyage.
“We encourage ship owners and fishermen to purchase piracy insurance, but the best way to avoid being hijacked is to stay away from pirate areas,” Huang Hung-yan said.
With pirates extending the scope of their operations farther to the south, fishing vessels are advised not to operate in the “no-go zone” off the coast of Somalia, defined by the government as north of southern latitude 5° and west of eastern longitude 70°, about 1,000 nautical miles (1,850km) away from Somali shores, Huang Hung-yan said.
The government has required all Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessels operating in distant seas to install a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), a satellite-based positional tracking system for monitoring the location of vessels.
This allows the Fisheries Agency to warn ships when they enter the “no-go zone” and advise them to leave immediately, Huang Hung-yan said.
Aside from the Hsiuh Fu No. 1, hijacking incidents involving Taiwanese fishing vessels all took place inside the no-go zone, Huang Hung-yan said.
Huang Hung-yan denied claims that Taiwanese fishing vessels were engaging in poaching, one of the reasons cited by the UN as being behind the development of piracy off the coast of Somalia.
To encourage fishermen not to fish in high-risk areas, the government said it would help operators of fishing vessels that deploy in the Indian Ocean find other fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean, the West Pacific Ocean and in the southern hemisphere by negotiating fishing access quotas with countries and inter-governmental fisheries organizations, he said.
“Since 2009, 52 Taiwanese ships have left the Indian Ocean to operate in other fishing grounds,” Huang Hung-yan said.
The ships account for about one-third of Taiwanese fishing vessels with displacement of more than 100 tonnes operating in the Indian Ocean. Another one-third are still there facing the risk of piracy and the other one-third has returned home because of piracy, Taiwan Tuna Association chairman Huang Chao-ching (黃昭欽) said.
About 300 fishing vessels of less than 100 tonne displacement also operate in the Indian Ocean.
Statistics from the Fisheries Agency show a large majority of Taiwanese in the distant-sea fishing industry are self-employed captains doubling as ship owners, whose fishing vessels are less than 100 tonnes, with each valued at about NT$20 million (US$692,500).
Fishing vessels greater than 100 tonnes are owned by fishing companies, it says.
Following Wu’s death, the government has developed a set of proposals to protect fishing ships against piracy, including enhancing cooperation with the US and other countries in combating piracy, considering dispatching warships to join international anti-piracy forces and getting direct access to the international anti-piracy mechanism, the ministry said.
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