Iranian Hostages Escape from Somali Pirate Gangs

ON August 27, 2015, the Jaber, an Iranian fishing dhow, and its crew members managed to slip its mooring and escape from the hands of Somali pirates. The Jaber was briefly pursued by the pirates before it was able to rendezvous with international naval forces operating under the EUNAVFOR mission.

The Jaber, along with the Siraj, were believed to be illegally fishing in Somali waters when they were hijacked on March 25, 2015 and held hostage by the same pirate gang suspected of involvement in the tragic SV Quest incident in 2011. The vessels were hijacked off the Somali coast and held in the village of Ceel Hurr in the Galmudug region of Somalia which is near the notorious pirate port of Hobyo. Unfortunately the Siraj did not manage to escape and is still being held hostage by Somali pirates.

The plight of these two vessels has been largely ignored by the press and policy-makers and the 39 crewmen of the Siraj and Jaber were never counted amongst the hostages by major piracy reporting centers. However they were held for ransom by known Somali pirates in a similar manner to the infamous pirate incidents that occurred in the past decade. This incident, as well as other near-shore attacks earlier this year, could reopen a discussion on the durability of the international response to piracy in the Indian Ocean.

Over the last two years, pirate activity from Somalia was almost eliminated due to the unprecedented cooperation across the maritime sector which included naval operations, embarked private security teams, adherence to Best Management Practices by industry, and the regional prosecution of over 1,000 pirates. The hijacking of the chemical tanker Smyrni on May 10th, 2012 was the last large merchant vessel to be captured by Somali pirates. Since then incidence of large scale piracy has diminished, but has never completely gone away.

The reduction in piracy incidents appears to have caused a rise in Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing by foreign fishing vessels in the coastal areas of Somalia. Increased near-shore fishing by foreign fleets has long been cited by Somali coastal communities as a provocation and has reignited tensions in areas where high unemployment and weak governance are the norm. In another incident this year, the Amal, a South Korean fishing vessel that sank off the coast of Puntland on August 5. While most of the crew was repatriated to their home countries, the ship’s Captain and Chief Engineer were arrested by Puntland authorities under suspicion of illegal fishing activities.