Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean is
a serious and ongoing threat to UK and EU interests. It could
spread within the region, which is unstable.
The EU's Operation Atalanta, with its operational
headquarters based in Northwood, UK, has made a strong contribution
to combating piracy, in particular protecting World Food Programme
(WFP) ships and coordinating with other maritime forces in the
area. However there are a number of areas that need improvement
and require action.
Naval vessels and their crews are very expensive
resources in short supply. With more surveillance aircraft the
Atalanta fleet could be far more effective and efficient. Similarly,
the permanent availability of a tanker would prevent Atalanta
vessels from having to return to port on a regular basis solely
to refuel.
The WFP's use of small, slow ships makes them especially
vulnerable to pirate attacks. As a result they require greater
military protection and resources. The Government and the EU should
insist that the WFP charter faster, larger and more modern vessels.
It is even more efficient for military contingents to be placed
on these vessels rather than having warships and their crew shadowing
each delivery. It should be a condition of the award of a WFP
contract that, when requested, the flag state allow these vessels
to carry Atalanta military forces on board.
Military personnel placed on commercial shipping
should be given specialised training. We agree with UK policy
that private security guards should not be placed on commercial
shipping because of the increased risks to crew and ships.
The insurance industry is not taking sufficient responsibility
for ensuring that commercial shipping transiting the area complies
with readily available, tried and tested procedures to reduce
the risk of capture by pirates. At a minimum the industry should
impose increased insurance premiums on ship operators who do not
comply.
We agree with the increasingly robust action taken
against pirates by Atalanta forces. There is a need to change
the perceived risk/reward ratio for pirate activity.
We welcome the EU's agreements with Kenya and the
Seychelles to prosecute pirates, and the negotiations now taking
place with other states in the region. We wait to see the number
of successful prosecutions that result.
There will be no solution to the problem of piracy
without a solution to the root causes of the conflict on land
in Somalia. We support the EU's efforts to deal with Somalia's
problems by building up the security sector in line with democratic
norms, providing humanitarian assistance and assisting the authorities
in Somaliland and Puntland to strengthen their coastguards.
If the piracy problems of the Gulf of Aden and the
Indian Ocean are not robustly tackled, there will be copy-cat
piracy elsewhere on the world's shipping lanes adjacent to failed
states or regions where a government's writ fails to reach.
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