DFA: Pirates still holding 24 Pinoy seamen hostage

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty-four Filipino seafarers are still being held captive by Somali pirates, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

“The Philippine government is working continuously with ship owners and operators in order to secure their release,” the DFA said.

Filipino seafarers account for one-third of the crewing complement of merchant vessels engaged in international traffic.

The Philippine embassy in London reported to the DFA that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime launched in October an assistance program for seafarers who have fallen victim to Somali pirates. The program is a component of UNODC’s counter-piracy program to help address the piracy problem in the Horn of Africa.

During the meeting of Working Group 1 (WG1) of the Contact Group on Piracy off Somalia held in London recently, UNODC briefed the participants on its seafarers’ assistance program.

The program has initially provided repatriation assistance to South Asian crewmembers who were recently released by their Somali captors.

“The Philippine government welcomes the decision taken by UNODC to complement its counter-piracy capacity-building projects in the judicial and legal systems of Somalia by creating a new program to assist seafarers who have fallen victims to Somali pirates,” said Ambassador Enrique Manalo.

The new UNODC program for seafarers was in response to a proposal made by the Philippines that counter-piracy programs funded by UNODC should also address the needs of seafarers who are victimized by this international crime.

The Philippine proposal was conveyed by the embassy’s Minister Francisco Noel Fernandez at a meeting of WG1 in London in February last year.