ReCAAP Quarterly Report 2014 on Piracy & Armed Robbery At Sea Against Ships in Asia
THE OVERALL improvement in the situation of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia continues into the 1st Quarter of 2014 (January- March) for a third consecutive year based on a quarter-on-quarter comparison.
The number of incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia has fluctuated during January, February and March of 2014. A total of 28 incidents, comprising 27 actual incidents and one attempted incident, were reported during January-March 2014. Graph 1 shows the number of incidents (actual and attempted) for each month from January 2014 to March 2014.
Of the 27 actual incidents, 13 incidents involved pirates/robbers armed with knives/machetes and four incidents involved pirates/robbers armed with guns and knives.
As in past statistics where the type of weapons used was stated, most of the pirates/robbers were armed with knives, which believed to have been carried to cut ropes, and in some cases, to threaten the crew, to compel the crew to surrender their valuables or to prevent the crew from capturing or stopping them from escaping.
While there has been an overall improvement in the situation in Asia, the number of incidents in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore has increased during the 1st Quarter of 2014 compared to the same period in 2012 and 2013.
These incidents involving ships while underway were mainly less significant incidents: of the eight incidents reported in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, six were Category 3 incidents. With reports of incidents occurred at certain ports and anchorages, more stringent enforcement of the ISPS code, effective policing by port authorities and active patrolling by the relevant agencies are advocated.
The ReCAAP ISC encourages ship masters to report all incidents to the coastal State immediately, and the relevant authorities to respond by dispatching patrol vessel to the location of the incident as demonstrated in the incident involving tug boat, SG Victory on 21 Feb 14 where the robbers were arrested and the stolen items recovered. The incident was featured as a case study in Part three of this report.
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Source: ReCAAP ISC
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