Citadels; Safe Haven For All?
Recent reports demonstrating the willingness of the shipping industry to adopt simple anti-piracy measures, particularly in the Horn of Africa and Indian Ocean, have seen an increase in the use of 'citadels' or 'safe rooms'. A very recent incident, November 11, in which the Indian Navy was called upon was about 450nm west of Mumbai, India. The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged merchant ship, MV BBC Orinoco, sailing from Aquaba, Jordan, to Singapore with a crew of 14 (including five Ukrainian and nine Filipinos) reported " being attacked by pirates" around 6 am that morning.
An Indian Defence spokesperson said. "The crew locked themselves in the ship's engine room and the steering compartment and communicated with their agents, UK MTO Dubai via email," adding "Dubai, then, intimated the Indian Navy for assistance". Maritime Patrol Aircraft was deployed to conduct surveillance and two Indian warships, including marine commandos, were despatched which later released the crew from their locked compartment – a success story.
There have been a few notable successes in the use of such 'citadels'; MV Magellan Star - 'rescued' by US Marines; MV Go Trader - pirates abandon vessel; MV Beluga Fortune - 'rescued' by Royal Navy frigate. These successes have largely been due to the fact a warship is within close enough vicinity to carry out a rescue mission.
As governments and the economic climate dictate, counter piracy patrols will fall away over time; fatigue will set in following the lack of progress made against piracy - piracy figures look to be reaching an all-time high at the current rate - the shipping companies will continue to gamble that their vessel will not be attacked when the risk: ratio is taken into account, and they will not, therefore, have a greater financial burden. Insurance companies will continue to receive higher premiums, which shipping companies will pay, rather than introduce potentially costly measures on board their vessels. Gambling with the crew and cargo seems to be a way of shipping life.
Now that ‘citadels’ have proved, in the eyes of many, to be a successful and a much cheaper option to protect the crew, the news stories demonstrate the point for shipping companies/owners in keeping down costs by not having to implement so many of the self-protection and safety measures stated in the Best Management Practice (version 3). But is this success sheer luck?
Reports have surfaced of late that the pirates are carrying explosives with them. They have already looked to set ships on fire when they have been unable to gain access to the ‘citadel’, albeit unsuccessfully. However, it is only a matter of time before they attempt to use explosives to gain entry to a citadel. With their lack of ship knowledge, it could be a disaster in the making. With such huge return of investment in their hijacks – over $9 million for the release of MV Samho Dream, a South Korean supertanker – it will not be long before they become au fait with the use of explosives and indeed the use of the fuel they carry in motherships and skiffs.
Other aspects to add to the equation of crew and vessel security and safety are whether the crew will remain in a citadel for a protracted period; will they have sufficient supplies and communications capability to survive; will the vessel’s engines be switched off (if not using the engine room as a citadel, of course); will the vessel be left to drift in the sea lanes or result in being run aground? The crew, by and large, are not trained to operate weapons, and the use of armed guards may cause an escalation of violence that no one wishes to see occur. Many shipping companies and flag states do not condone armed guards; the major international military authorities in the region certainly do not support the use of armed guards either. However, taking ownership of the protection for the vessel is not such a simple matter, despite being, in general, in international waters.
As the pirates “grow more brazen, the business of piracy flourishes into a multi-tiered economy with many profiting from it”, according to Turkish politician Birgen Keles, that growing profit margin enables the pirates to provide greater capability as they change their tactics and move further afield in the region. The use of Mother ships, whether fishing vessels, or increasingly, larger pirated vessels, towing the attack skiffs provides them with the ability to remain in an area that much longer, without the desperation to gain access to a merchant vessel that was obvious in 2009.
Whilst “new economy flourishes all over the world with security companies, law and specialised negotiators gaining profit from their involvement in solving piracy cases”, writes Birgen Keles in a report for NATO, the UN secretary general for political affairs, Lynn Pascoe, told the UN Security Council “Piracy is a menace that is outpacing efforts by the international community to stem it.” This is true in the case of the use of citadels. The pirates are becoming more sophisticated in their finance deals ashore and in the operating procedures at sea. It cannot be long before they find ways to breach the citadels, or show a bit of patience to wait for the merchant vessel to become a danger to other shipping, or run aground.
Improved security planning, better self-protection measures, vessel registration and position reporting go some way to increasing the vessels chances of evading being pirated; however, there is still a clear necessity to increase maritime domain awareness through the sharing of information. If MV BBC Orinoco had the time and presence of mind to send an email to UKMTO, as mentioned above; imagine the increased situational awareness should a real time, secure, online collaboration capability be available to all.
OCEANUSLive.org
Information, Security, Safety; Shared
Submitted by: Team at OCEANUSLive.org