News

The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser.

14 August 2009

The year 2010 is to be designated the global ‘year of the seafarer’ by the International Maritime Organisation in recognition of the contribution that the world’s seafarers make to society and the risks they are exposed to in the execution of their duty.

The fatal boating accident off Dover that occurred last weekend was a terrible tragedy but thankfully – despite the dangers of power boat racing – such incidents are mercifully rare. The same cannot be said for the plight of merchant seafarers who spend all their working lives in a potentially hostile environment and have to suffer the battering of bad weather and the threat of armed attacks by ruthless pirates.

We can’t do much about the weather but we have to do something to provide more protection from armed attacks because they are increasing and they are starting to get close to home.

Earlier in the year I was involved in efforts to secure information from the Foreign Office about the wellbeing of Capt Hughes who was held hostage in Nigeria for over six moths on behalf of his brother who lives in St Margaret’s. The family’s campaign helped bring about his eventual release but the story could easily have ended in tragedy.

Even more astonishingly, at the time of writing this column it seems more and more certain the Russian cargo ship ‘Arctic Sea’ has been hijacked on its passage through the English Channel. She had a routine radio exchange with Dover Coastguards as she approached the Channel on 28th July and she showed up on Lloyd’s vessel-tracking service the next day but she hasn’t been heard of since.

During my years at sea we used to hear about occasional pirate attacks off the West African coast but nothing compared with the scale of today’s pirate activity – and it’s getting worse. Attacks on shipping around the world have more than doubled over the first six months of this year with a total of 240 incidents reported between January and June.

There is also an escalation in the violence of the attacks and amongst the 560 crew members taken hostage 19 have been seriously injured, 6 have been killed and 8 are still missing. Nearly all the attacks involve knives and guns and the pirate activity is getting more and more professional.

Much of the growth in this evil trade has taken place off the coast of Somalia and pirates are also active in South East Asia and the Far East but until this week’s news of the mv Arctic Sea there haven’t been any incidents in home waters.

The International Maritime Bureau has confirmed that attempts to contact the vessel or her owner have proved unsuccessful, with the result that the case is not yet officially designated a piracy incident but it’s looking more and more likely.

I welcome the ILO’s initiative in designating next year as the global ‘year of the seafarer’ but I’d give much warmer welcome to some practical proposals to give more protection to seafarers this year.