The family has been informed he is fine.
Pirates in Nigeria have kidnapped 12 members of a Swiss cargo ship, including one Croatian citizen. The Swiss shipping company has confirmed that they were attacked on their cargo ship which was transporting wheat in Nigerian waters. The company has hired a special team to ensure the release of abducted seafarers, reports Index.hr on September 25, 2018.
Romano Perić from the Seafarers’ Union of Croatia has revealed that they received information last night that all sailors are well. The information was provided by the seaman’s family.
He added that the Swiss company which owns the ship had already hired professionals who would try to bring this case to an end – this mainly includes negotiations. Depending on the outcome of the negotiations, they will try to get the sailors alive and unhurt.
Asked how long such negotiations usually last, he said it depends on the situation, “the amount of money sought and the real value of what the kidnappers can get.” “There were situations in which it all lasted three to five days, but sometimes it takes months,” he said.
So far, they have no information on what the kidnappers are demanding, but they assume it will be money.
Captain Siniša Orlić, the assistant to the Minister of the Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, agreed that in such cases the most important factor is money. Croatian seafarers have been involved in several instances of pirate attacks. “In some cases, they managed to defend themselves, but some of the incidents ended up with kidnappings. However, so far we have no confirmed cases which ended, let’s say so, unluckily,” Orlić said.
The incident surprised the ministry. “These attacks have been becoming rarer in the past few years. Their peak occurred in Somalia in the period between 2010 and 2012. Last year, there was just one such attack. The attacks have now moved to the west coast of Africa, to Nigerian waters,” he explained.
Marinko Ogorec, a security expert, said that the pirate attacks on ships have begun to occur again because “the security level on the ships has obviously been lowered.” Ogorec added the most efficient method is to have a professional team armed with automatic weapons on the ship which can start an exchange of fire with pirates before they climb the ship.
Captain Ivo Mašković has been a seaman since 1973 and has 9,000 days spent on ships. He said he never had a direct contact with pirates. He added that ships “defend the best they can.” “We wrap the entire ship with wire. Everything is closed and we have double watches on the ship when we are passing through areas where there is no security. They usually attack with two boats: one approaches the ship, while the other uses weapons to protect them from a little further away,” he explained.
Translated from Index.hr.
