Somali pirates terrorizing mariners’ families

Somali pirates are dragging the family members of their hostages into their tactics of speeding up ransom payments, said the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP).

The ITF-funded organization said pirates are both calling family members and “making the seafarer plead for his life while he is threatened with death and guns are fired, and filming the abuse and posting it online for relatives to see."

The pirates do this to force families to lobby companies to pay ransoms quicker.

MPHRP chairman Peter Swift said these tactics now “frequently cross the line from savagery to torture.”

The organization plans to put out guides for seafarers next year.

Source: ITF