Confirming this news, directorate general of Shipping (DGS) S B Agnihotri said that all the 21 crew members are in a safe and healthy condition and headed towards a port. The MV Fairchem Bogey was hijacked while it was waiting to berth at the Salalah Port at Oman, on its way to China from Saudi Arabia and was anchored near Salalah to load methanol. The DGS confirmed that armed guards had now been deployed at the MV Fairchem to escort the vessel’s crew back to safety. However, Mr Agnihotri did not shed any light on the ransom that had been paid to the pirates in order to secure the MV Fairchem and its’ crew’s safe return.
A costly affair
According to Sunil Mukherjee, proprietor of Payal Logistics, a Kolkata based logistics service provider, “The shipping industry worldwide has already lost enormous amounts to the plague called piracy. Most measures adopted across the global shipping community seem to have failed, leaving shippers frail and desperate. There seems to be no respite at hand.”
Pirates had demanded about US$600,000 in ransom in 2007 for a captured ship, while in 2011 the amount went up to US$4.6 million. Evidently, these frequently occurring entanglements with the pirates are costing the shipping sector a lot of money. Not only are shippers now forced to pay out higher premiums for insurance coverage, trade activities are also getting hugely affected.
Priyanka Roy Chowdhury |
Piracy terrors have plagued the international shipping community for a long time now and all measures adopted in order to curb the menace have yielded naught. However, the Indian shipping community was able to heave a sigh of relief recently when a vessel carrying 21 Indian sailors were released by the Somali pirates. The chemical tanker, MV Fairchem Bogey, was in captivity of the pirates since August last year.
