SUR calls on maritime unions not to send seafarers to piracy-infected areas

Seafarers’ Union of Russia (SUR) called on a number of maritime unions to ensure that seafarers are not send to work in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia as long as the pirates groups are operating there, the SUR statement said. For its part the organization will continue its efforts to ensure by all means available that the Russian sailors will not be working in these areas.
The initiative of SUR was triggered by the murder of a Filipino seafarer on board of the Beluga Nomination, pirated on Jan. 22, 2011.
The union has sent a petition to support the initiative to the Association of Marine Officers and Seamen's Union of the Philippines, Federation of Trade Unions of Maritime Transport of Ukraine, Maritime Transport Workers' Union of Ukraine and the International Transport Workers Federation, as well as the company Marlow Navigation.
The SUR statement emphasizes that previously the Somalia pirates took the seafarers hostage, but did not kill them. So far, the seafarers’ deaths were unintentional. However, after the recent murder, "maritime piracy does not differ any more from terrorism," the statement said. The Russian union believes that combating piracy in international waters is the obligation of the states of shipowners, and the countries whose sailors are working on ships and are taken hostages. To stop the piracy it is not enough just to protect ships in the Gulf of Aden: it is urgent to destroy onshore terrorists’ bases.
"Maritime trade unions representing the interests of seafarers should demand from the UN and governments to take whatever measures they deem necessary to ensure the safety of seafarers in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia," the statement said.
Source: PortNews