It is no longer America’s gold, silver or spices, but oil, containers full of goods or the crew and passengers themselves, for which ransoms are demanded in exchange for their release, but piracy remains an evil that it hits certain seas, especially in the Indian Ocean and several of those that bathe the coasts of Africa.
A danger for which many of the ships that sail through these compromised waters were poorly prepared, since until now Spanish regulations, following international laws, did not allow weapons to be carried on board in general, and those companies that wanted to protect their ships had to obtain an individual permit in order to hire security personnel to sail with them. Now that has changed.
armed personnel. According to El País, the Government has just modified the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy so that any shipping company in our country can hire private security services on board without having to request prior individual authorization to do so, as happened until now. These personnel may carry those weapons necessary to dissuade or repel boardings.
hot spots. The Gulf of Guinea, the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa are the areas where most pirate activity is currently concentrated throughout the world. Areas through which a large part of the maritime trade that takes place between Europe, Africa and Asia usually passes.
Of all the areas mentioned, the Gulf of Guinea is, according to the latest reports from the Spanish Department of National Security, the most dangerous and where the greatest acts of piracy, armed robbery, kidnapping of sailors, illegal fishing, smuggling and trafficking of Drugs are produced globally.
The Horn of Africa, which for several years was the hottest spot for international piracy, has recently decreased its level of danger thanks to the European Union’s Operation Atalanta, through which military ships from several member countries fight Somali filibusters since 2008.
Problems carrying weapons on ships. The problems for cargo and fishing boats to carry armed personnel on board were well portrayed in the film ‘Captain Phillips’, based on a book written by Richard Phillips, captain of a merchant ship that was robbed by Somali pirates in the Horn of Africa in 2009.
The crew of these ships were only allowed to carry non-fire deterrents, such as pressurized water hoses, and for their defense they had to rely on the intervention of the international military patrols that guarded those waters, which sometimes did not they arrived on time, as in the case that inspired this film.
Changes for more security. After several cases such as the one shown on the film, such as the one that occurred with the Spanish ship Playa de Bakio a year before Captain Phillips was kidnapped, the Government of Spain decided to relax the rules on weapons on merchant and fishing vessels and established that individual permits could be granted so that shipping companies could hire security personnel on board, as we have already mentioned.
With the new reform, the Executive eliminates this bureaucratic procedure and will allow all companies whose ships sail through dangerous waters to hire armed personnel without requesting prior permission to do so.