Six crew members of a Danish oil tanker kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Congo have been rescued, according to the ship’s owner
Four incidents of armed robbery against ships in Asia (all CAT 4 incidents) were reported to between 2 – 8 May.
The incidents occurred on 2 Apr on board a tanker while berthed alongside at Port of Lubuk Gaung, Indonesia; on 15 Apr and 1 May on board container ships while anchored at Manila Bay Anchorage, the Philippines; and on 25 Apr on board a tanker while anchored at Kandla Anchorage, India. The crew members were not injured in all the four incidents. Ship stores were stolen in three of the incidents, and nothing was stolen in the other incident.
International Maritime Organization (IMO) has released its Annual Report on acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships where piracy incidents are documented and examined globally and regionally.
The paper focuses on a summary of reports on incidents received between 1 January and 31 December 2022, including acts of piracy, acts of armed robbery against ships and attempted attacks. The data is based on information made available in IMO’s Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS) module on piracy and armed robbery.
Stowaways have been an expected, though unwanted feature of the maritime environment including within the shipping and fisheries industries since ships have travelled between countries and regions. The presence of stowaways on board
commercial vessels, in particular, causes a plethora of legal, economic, and indeed political issues, the consequences of which come at cost in monetary and reputational terms to an array of interrelated industry stakeholders. These include owners, managers, insurers and the crew themselves. Yet, underlying these impacts lie human accounts behind the stowaways, each with its own set of unique human factors combining to impel the would-be stowaway to embark on such a perilous journey.