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Sos Saveourseafarers News

21 Aug 2012

SOS Supports EU Anti-Piracy Efforts

Campaign supports continued EU anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast. The SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign welcomes the UK House of Lords Select Committee for External Affairs Report which contains a series of recommendations on how to curb piracy off the coast of Somalia. These include the continued use of naval warships to tackle piracy under EUNAVFOR's ongoing anti-piracy operation Operation Atalanta. "We wholeheartedly welcome the Committee's acknowledgement of the significant impact Operation Atalanta has had in reducing the number of pirate attacks…

18 Jun 2012

Somali Pirates: 24 Year Sentence in France

Somali pirates who were found guilty of hijacking the French vessel Le Ponant in 2008 have been sentenced to a total of 24 years imprisonment by a Paris court. Of the six Somali pirates, who were captured by French forces in a daring raid on land, with a 4x4 vehicle, arms and a part of the ransom, two were acquitted. One was sentenced to serve four years but this was negated by his detention on remand since April, 2008. All three had protested their innocence. Two others were sentenced to seven years imprisonment and the remaining pirate…

24 May 2012

SOS: Asian Shipowners Unite on Piracy

Shipowners from all over Asia gathered to form a massive human SOS as a demonstration of their support for the international SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign. The gesture was photographed during the meetings this week in Australia of the 21st Asian Shipowners Forum (ASF) which had piracy at the top of their agenda. In the last 7 years, 62 seafarers have died as a result of pirate actions, and getting on for 4,000 have been held hostage on some 200 ships hijacked by Somali pirates.

26 Mar 2012

SOS Welcomes Robust EU Action on Somali Coast

The SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign welcomes the extension of the EU counter- piracy operation until end 2014, and the  EU decision to broaden the scope of its naval operation in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean  by extending the naval forces’ area of operations to include Somali coastal territory which allows it to take more robust action on the Somali coast. This is a bold step towards the goal that the shipping industry and its seafarers embrace - that of seeing piracy in this region eliminated.

23 Feb 2012

SOS: Laments Somalia Findings Ignore Seafarer Hardships

SOS SaveOurSeafarers welcomes piracy conclusions of Somalia Conference but disappointed that seafarers not mentioned. SOS SaveOurSeafarers welcomes the London Conference on Somalia which was attended by 55 delegations from Somalia and the international community, and willingly supports its focus on unifying the international community in its coordinated support to Somalia, in the hope that a new era of Somali politics, supported by the international community, will bring peace to Somalia. SOS thanks the UK Prime Minister for urging delegates to “keep up the pressure on pirates”.

22 Feb 2012

Statement from SOS SaveOurSeafarers

Following Tuesday’s conference on Somali piracy organised by the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office and held at the IMO’s London headquarters, Giles Heimann, Chair of the SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign, said, â€śWe welcome the acknowledgement of the importance of the continuing partnership between the shipping industry, the naval forces and governments, and their ongoing commitment in tackling the issue of piracy off the coast of Somalia. We look to reinforce these relationships.

24 Jan 2012

CEOs Targeted by Anti-Piracy Campaign

www.SaveOurSeafarers.com (SOS), the international anti-piracy initiative backed by 30 of the world’s largest maritime organisations, is to lobby support from business leaders to increase international pressure on Governments to take firmer action against Somali piracy. This violence and hostage-taking is costing the world economy an estimated $12 billion a year. SOS SaveOurSeafarers Campaign Chair Giles Heimann, said: “These criminal gangs are holding the world economy to ransom.

05 Jan 2012

SaveOurSeafarers Issues Statement on Somalian Piracy

Statement from the shipping industry’s SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign with reference to the U.K. House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s Report “Piracy off the coast of Somalia”. The shipping industry’s SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign welcomes the U.K. House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s Report “Piracy off the coast of Somalia”. As the FAC observes, gathering evidence against pirates  is challenging. But SOS notes FAC’s comment that not all claims made by the government about the difficulty in securing evidence were wholly convincing.

07 Oct 2011

Campaign Against Piracy Hits Big Screen

SOS SaveOurSeafarers, a high profile, shipping industry anti- piracy campaign is taking its message to celluloid with the launch of a short video highlighting the human and economic cost of Somali piracy. The six-minute video was launched this week at the Safety4Seainternational maritime security conference in Athens and highlights the significant threat of Somali piracy attacks for the worldwide seafarer community and potentially for world trade itself. The video, which is also being posted on YouTube…

14 Sep 2011

Philippine, British Governments Announce Support for SaveOurSeafarers

Seafarers’ organisations, shipping companies together with business leaders and the biggest ever grouping of shipping industry associations, which have joined forces to campaign against Somali piracy, have received a welcome boost from the British and Philippine Governments confirming their support for the global  SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign. In the UK,  correspondence between members of the SOS campaign and the British MP Henry Billingham, Minister for Africa, the UN, Overseas Territories and Conflict Issues…

20 Jun 2011

SaveOurSeafarers Campaign Responds to Piracy Threat

62 seafarers have died in the past four years as a direct result of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, through deliberate murder by pirates, suicide during the period of captivity, death from malnutrition and disease, death by drowning, or heart failure just after the hijacking. This figure has prompted the shipping industry’s SOS SaveOurSeafarers campaign to give even greater emphasis to its worldwide call for government action to tackle the issue. “During this same period…