Word: ransomed
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...Nairobi-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, which monitors Somali pirate attacks and liaises with the hostage takers and the captured crews, says "illegal trawling has fed the piracy problem." In the early days of Somali piracy, those who seized trawlers without licenses could count on a quick ransom payment, since the boat owners and companies backing those vessels didn't want to draw attention to their violation of international maritime law. This, Charo reckons, allowed the pirates to build up their tactical networks and whetted their appetite for bigger spoils...
...approach worked. The Indian authorities "facilitated" negotiations between the pirates and the ship's owners, and the crew was released for an undisclosed ransom, believed to be much lower than the $6 million the pirates had initially demanded. At the same time, the Indian navy sent a warship, the INS Tabar, to the Gulf of Aden - for the first time deploying a warship in an offensive role in international waters. For close to 20 days, the INS Tabar escorted some 35 ships to safety, including non-Indian-flagged vessels, but it accidentally shot down a hijacked Thai trawler that...
India has been able to benefit from its large and well-armed navy, but not all Asian countries have such military capability. Though nearly half the hostages held by Somali pirates are Filipino, the Philippine government has been unable to influence ship owners to negotiate ransoms or take military action. The International Seafarers Action Center (ISAC) in the Philippines says 122 Filipino seafarers are currently being held captive, which includes the 23 onboard the MV Stolt Strength, a Japanese-owned chemical tanker that was hijacked on Nov. 10 last year. ISAC secretary-general Joseph Entero says the ship's owner...
Most information on hijacked ships is that the ransom paid to get them back is about $2 million per vessel and crew. In some cases, the pirates actually charge an additional fee for the ships which has been estimated as being as high as $5 million...
...against fishing boats that illegally fished and dumped toxic waste in their waters. But what may have started as a seed of retaliation has bloomed into a full-blown criminal enterprise, with pirate financiers and organizers in cities across the world and the exchange of millions of dollars in ransom...