@By Hemang Palan

Twitter/X: @hemang_palan

India's leading shipping association, Maritime Association of Shipowners Shipmanagers and Agents (MASSA) will today submit an important petition to the Indian shipping Ministry in the interest of Indian seafarers who face the grave danger of maritime piracy nowadays.

Capt Girish Phadnis, Chairman, MASSA said, “To tackle the grave problem of maritime piracy, we will submit a petition to the Indian Shipping Ministry today to provide an escort of Indian Naval Vessel to every cargo vessel passing through Red Sea and carries either an Indian cargo and/or has Indian seafarers on-board, and/or is an Indian flag cargo vessel.”

The Red Sea, which connects the eastern part of the globe to the western part through the Aden-Suez Canal corridor, is an extremely busy maritime route which has come under severe attack recently from Yemen’s Houthi group.

Maritime piracy is a huge cause of concern for Indian seafarers who comprise around 11% global workforce. Currently, around 2.5 lakh Indian seafarers serve thousands of specialized cargo vessels across the globe as ratings (semi-skilled workers) and highly-skilled merchant navy officers. Figures released by International Maritime Bureau states that in the last 10 months, there’s been over 10% rise in serious incidents of maritime piracy and armed robbery, and pirates armed with arms have been able to board around 90% of the targeted cargo ships unfortunately putting the lives of seafarers on board the vessels in grave danger.

Recently, Indian Parliament passed an important Bill to provide an effective legal instrument to combat maritime piracy. The Bill provides for stringent punishment to those convicted of such crimes. The Bill enables Indian authorities to take action against piracy in the high seas. The Bill brings into law the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.  It applies to the sea beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), i.e., beyond 200 nautical miles from India’s coastline.