Asia Accounts for 75% of World’s Piracy and Armed Robbery Incidents

As the number of maritime attacks across the world continue to decline, piracy and armed robbery (PAR) incidents in Asia are rapidly increasing.

The world witnessed a total of 245 attacks in 2014 of which Asia now accounts for up to 75% of all piracy and armed robbery (PAR) incidents, up from 60% in 2013.

According to the Singapore-based Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), 183 actual or attempted attacks took place in Southeast Asian sea region during 2014.

This was up from 150 in 2013 and 133 in 2012, and is the highest since 2006.
In Asia, piracy and armed robbery across the sea has been largely concentrated in the southeast region.

Strait of Malacca, a maritime area that borders four states; Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore reports the maximum number of such incidents.

Over one third of all shipping traverses the Strait of Malacca each year, with an estimated 15.2 million barrels of crude oil transported through this strategic choke-point every day.

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) 2014 Annual Report, there has been a significant rise in the number of attacks across the entire Southeast Asia region as compared to the last year.

Indonesia

Majority of these attacks which has now touched 100 has occurred around Indonesia’s coastal region.

Although the number of incidents was down slightly from 106 in 2013, the figure is still more than double the 40 attacks reported in 2010.

Malaysia and the adjacent portion of the South China Sea have registered 24 incidents in 2014, almost three times as many as in 2013.

During the same period, ReCAAP registered 23 incidents, up from just one the year before.

Bangladesh is fast becoming another notable flashpoint, with the IMB recording 21 reported incidents, up from 12 the year before.

During the same year, ReCAAP registered 14 incidents, more than double the six it had logged the year before.

Most of the violent incidents were planned for siphoning fuel and oil by attacking oil tankers weighing less than 5000 gross tons (GT).

On 34 such instances attackers were armed with guns whereas three deaths have also been registered within a year.

According to Lee Yin Hui, Assistant Director, ReCAAP’s, “over half of all incidents were logged as petty thefts. Moreover, despite the frequent use of firearms, the vast majority of attackers still remained unarmed or carried “just” knives or machetes.”

In many cases the ship owners are reluctant to report the attacks as they are concerned over the company’s safety record, potential liability, or simply to avoid higher insurance premiums. And therefore many attacks go unreported across the world.

While the majority of these attacks are of lower intensity but their increasing numbers are a certain worry for the surrounding nations.

The funds generated from these activities can be diverted in promoting organized crime in the region. Revenue generated from these attacks can also increase insurgencies and terrorist groups.

There is a dire need of concrete Joint counter-piracy operation in the Southeast Asia region, especially in the Strait of Malacca.

The rising number of such incidents has also started troubling the shipping firms operating in this region as it may also hike the overall cost of their insurance premiums.