Filipino seamen and Somali pirates: Two sides of the same desperate economic life at home

Philippine govt: 122 Filipino seamen held by Somali pirates

MANILA, April 15 (Xinhua) — The Philippine government said Wednesday that a total of 122 Filipino seafarers are being held by Somali pirates, following the hijacking of a Greek-owned ship with Filipino crew on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden.

MV Irene E.M. — the latest vessel captured by pirates off Somalian waters — has 22 Filipino seafarers on board, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement. This is the ninth hijacking in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean since the start of the month.

The foreign department said the newly-abducted Filipinos are reportedly unharmed and it is continuing to coordinate closely with concerned foreign authorities and the local manning agencies of the hijacked vessels to secure the early and safe release of the Filipino seafarers.

As the number of Filipino hostages keeps swelling in Somalia, the Philippine government remains clueless on how to provide protection to the thousands of seafarers sailing through the dangerous waters of Africa.

The Philippine government said that as a policy, it will not negotiate nor pay ransom to the kidnappers. Consequently, negotiations with pirates are usually left to the ship owners, who pay huge amounts to the pirates to ransom their crew.

“What the government is doing right now is to continue to monitor the negotiations being done by the manning agencies with the pirates in Somalia. At the moment there are no planned or no contemplated action as strong being done by other countries as what we have read in the papers like what the U.S. and French governments have done to rescue their citizens,” said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

Over the weekend, U.S. troops killed three Somali pirates and rescued an American ship captain in a military operation. However, the pirates seem undeterred and are even more provocative.

“We will just continue with the present action of actively looking at the plight of our Filipino seamen and we hope that in our own little way, we will be able to contribute to hastening the recovery of the seamen,” Ermita said.

He said that the Philippine government is poised to recommend the enforcement of travel ban for Filipino seamen in Somalia.

But the Department of Foreign Affairs said banning Filipino seamen from certain risky regions would be extremely difficult due to the sailors’ rapid mobility. Moreover, the government can not impose restrictions on the movement of the seafarers as this would violate their contracts with their manning agencies.

Somalia has no functioning central government. The hostage-taking spree in Somali waters have dragged on in the last couple of years, involving dozens of passing foreign vessels with hundreds of seafarers on board.

Critics say that Manila has not done enough to secure the release of all Filipino hostages in Somalia and prevent their abduction. The Philippines is the world’s leading supplier of crew, with over 350,000 sailors manning oil tankers, luxury liners and passenger vessels worldwide.

“Primarily, it is the responsibility of the state to take care of its workers, be it here or abroad. However, the way we see it, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the DFA seem to be very complacent about the situation,” said Joseph Entero, vice president of the non-governmental International Seafarers’ Action Center Philippines Foundation Inc.

SOURCE: www.chinaview.com, content_11191434.htm