By Anneloes van Iwaarden
Pirates off the coast of Somalia are forcing Dutch shipping companies use the route via the Cape of Good Hope to get to the ports of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Dutch broadcaster NOS reports.
This week saw yet another tanker hijacked on the dangerous Somali waters, this time a Saudi-vessel carrying over 300 million litres of crude oil.
On Friday the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) issued a Piracy Alert, warning all ships sailing in the region of southern Somalia and Kenya.
It might be an ‘out of control problem’ according to the IMB but what is the story behind this surge in piracy over the past few months?
As pointed out in BBC Radio 4’s Today program, pirates are seen by many as ‘lovable rogues’ when they actually are ‘violent and greedy criminals’.
This romanticised view of pirates is encouraged by Hollywood images of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and the illusion of carefree scoundrels fighting the establishment.
Indeed, in an interview by The Guardian one pirate says: “We consider ourselves heroes running away from poverty.”
Whether you believe the Somali pirates are modern day Robin Hoods or not, they are costing governments and businesses around the world millions in terms of lost revenue and ransom fees.
But the true tragedy of the Somali pirates is the reason that lies behind these acts of piracy. We read in this week’s Economist a catastrophic story of a collapsing Somalia and a lawless east Africa.
Amidst calls from shipping companies and nation-states to the EU and the UN to combat the piracy problem, perhaps it is also time to call upon these institutions to finally address the underlying problems fuelling piracy in the first place.
Posted by ahsvaniwaarden 