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Caring for Seafarers Affected by Piracy by MR. DOUGLAS B. STEVENSON Director, Center for Seafarers' Rights The Seamen's Church Institute of NY & NJ Pirates have threatened seafarers in many parts of the world for centuries. However, a particularly inhu- mane form of piracy has emerged within the past two decades in the waters off the coast of Somalia. In 2007, pirates gained world-wide attention when they attacked and captured ships transporting U.N. World Food Program food and supplies to Somalia. Not only did the pirates prevent vital supplies from reaching Somalia, but they also held seafarers hostage until ransoms were paid.1 Uncovering a Dark Secret In the early 1990s, the Seamen's Church Institute of NY & NJ (SCI) Center for Seafarers' Rights began receiving increasing numbers of reports from port chaplains about seafarers who suffered pirate attacks, primarily in Asian waters of the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. Back then, piracy seemed a surprisingly new problem to us. But, the more we learned about the occurrence of piracy, the more we discovered that it was merchant shipping's dark secret. In response, in 1995, we, along with the Maritime Law Association of the United States, organized a round- table discussion on piracy. We brought together a broad group of interests including ship owners, gov- ernment authorities, seafarers, trade unions, secu- rity experts, legal scholars, and representatives from countries where piracy was prevalent to exchange views on the then growing piracy phenomenon. One of the round-table's conclusions was that the full extent of the piracy problem was unknown because piracy incidents were under-reported, and no one kept records on the seafarers who had been attacked by pirates or knew what happened to them afterward. Pirate Attacks Intensify The dramatic increase of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia in 2007 and 2008, rekindled international attention to piracy. In 2007, we spoke at a maritime security conference focusing on piracy, and we raised piracy concerns that had been troubling us since the 1990s: • :KDW KDSSHQHG WR WKH VHDIDUHUV ZKR KDG EHHQ attacked by pirates? • 'LG WKH\ FRQWLQXH WKHLU VHDIDULQJ FDUHHUV" • :HUH WKH\ VWLOO ÀW WR ZRUN RQ VKLSV" • 'LG WKH\ QHHG FRQWLQXLQJ PHGLFDO FDUH DQG LI VR did they receive it? Douglas Stevenson listens to a former hostage. Photos courtesy of Seamen's Church Institute's Center for Seafarers' Rights. 60 Proceedings Spring 2012 • 'LG WKH\ JHW DQ\ KHOS LQ GHDOLQJ ZLWK WKH DIWHU- math of surviving a pirate attack? www.uscg.mil/proceedings Response