Piracy in Asia on the decline, for now

IT is always dangerous to be complacent when it comes to criminality at sea. However the latest report from the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (ReCAAP) secretariat is encouraging. One incident is one too many and in January a total of three incidents of armed robbery against ships were reported in Asia.

Nevertheless, compared to January 2018, that represents a 73 per cent decrease. All three incidents reported in January 2019 occurred on board ships at anchor; one at Caofeidian anchorage and one at Jingtang anchorage in China; and one at Ciwandan anchorage in Indonesia. All were relatively minor incidents; nobody was physically harmed and no firearms were used.

Significantly there were no reports of crew abductions in the Sulu-Celebes Seas and waters off Eastern Sabah and no hijacking of ships for theft of oil cargo reported in January 2019.