Pirate Hunting: Meet the Counter-Piracy Task Force | ENDEVR Documentary

foreign [Music] [Music] foreign Canal on its journey to Singapore [Music] you know what is this yeah I think it's some sweets safety suits or something yeah it's a bulletproof in the spring of 2009 its sister ship was hijacked off the Somalia Coast an event which still haunts the crew on the bow Cecil we thank you oh um foreign has been at sea for more than 30 years but this kind of equipment is a first even to this veteran the sea route through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aden is one of the major transport highways of the Seas each month more than 2 000 vessels use this important trading route between Asia and Europe it is in these Waters that the Somali pirates are wreaking havoc the captain of the bow Cecil summons his crew to a general meeting to inform and advise about their dangerous Journey welcome to this general meeting we get attacked we will sound the alarm and if the parents are coming I don't think it will help anybody to try our Sylvester Stallone or something like that 20 year old Nancy is the only woman among the 27 crew members [Music] [Music] at the same time the Norwegian warship fridge of nansen has also arrived in the Red Sea on its way to join the recently established EU task force to combat piracy operation at Atlanta foreign Dutchman Peter bent has the overall command of the 12 warships assigned to patrol and protect a sea area larger than the entire United States if Somalia slides will further also buy piracy that is a security risk for the whole world 80 percent of of trade of goods and energy is is transported overseas so it is it is vital for everyone that we've that we fight as friend [Music] the future of nonsen is among the newest and most sophisticated ships in the task force [Music] for this occasion it's been equipped with prison Barracks robotic machine guns and super fast speedboats operated by no ways Navy Seals foreign [Music] [Music] started twenty-year-old Ina has been in the Navy for almost a year that is today she and the rest of the crew will have their first taste of the realities of pirate hunting foreign [Music] [Music] again [Music] foreign foreign [Music] the city of Odessa Ukraine [Applause] from this Black Sea port cargo vessel Faida set out to sea in September 2008 on its way to Kenya and Sudan foreign [Music] for the first time Sergey and his friends talk about their ordeal after they were hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden an event which triggered the Western Naval offensive against the Pirates on September 25th 2008 the Faina enters the Gulf of Eden carrying an ominous cargo foreign Christian reports [Music] instructions [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on board the tanker bowel Cecil the crew has started their final preparations before crossing the dangerous Gulf of Aden oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in addition to the barbed wire and the floating ropes the captain has decided to extend hoses with boiling hot steam along the sides the ship will be turned into a floating Fortress foreign [Applause] Manila Commerce have you wanna press [Music] your fingers [Music] Ali Arif is only 29 years old and already the commander of a group of 20 Pirates piracy has made him a rich man here in ale city that has been called the pirate capital of Somalia off the beach lies Ali's latest Bounty a Filipino ship that he soon hopes will bring Ransom support the Philippines [Music] the sea outside of ale used to be filled with tuna fish lobster and shrimp then the foreign has arrived with modern fishing ships trawling the reefs bear of life with their livelihood gone the population here had no other choice but to turn to piracy according to Somali human rights Advocate Mohammed Waldo it's merely a desperate response of a desperate people of death spread fishermen of desperate Community it's a desperate response [Music] [Music] foreign the warship fridge of nonsen has been assigned to escort the bow Cecil for a few miles [Laughter] so thank you it's a bit of nonsense foreign foreign the Ukrainian cargo vessel Faina barely managed to send a Mayday signal before the Pirates were on board in just minutes the 17 frightened Sailors were captured and forced into a tiny cabin of just 12 square meters foreign managed to hide his mobile phone telephone number these are his own video images of their captivity which was to last for four full months the Faina is taken to the pirate Port of habio meanwhile an American warship arrives to monitor the situation [Music] as the weeks go by the crew realizes that their shipping company in Odessa is not going to pay the ransom anytime soon in the tiny cabin people are starting to get on each other's nerves foreign foreign the weather is gradually improving making the conditions ideal for small Pirates gifts [Music] a surveillance plane has spotted a suspicious boat the nonsense gets the assignment foreign foreign despite the amount of guns and pirate equipment found EU procedures do not permit the crew of the nansen to interrogate the suspects there is no law against carrying guns in international waters and the evidence might not secure a conviction in Kenya the country designated to prosecute the suspects in a court of law hesitatingly the Norwegian Commander finally decides to let the Pirates go voice foreign the Pirates get a serving of sandwiches water and Halal chicken foreign but then something happens the Pirates apparently don't want to leave no Waypoint no weapons and don't know the direction so one six one degree [Music] [Music] meanwhile onboard the bow Cecil the news of the military's latest pirate encounter has struck like a bombshell yeah foreign [Music] um conditioner foreign [Music] a few pirates still end up in the custody of the western navies usually in the cases where they're caught during an actual hijack attempt the crew on this pirate Mothership has just been arrested by U.S Marines the suspects are transported to the warship's hangar for processing from there they're taken to Kenya to face trial [Music] the Kenyans however are anything but Overjoyed at accepting these prisoners we only accept what we are able to to handle in other words we bite what we can chew at the moment more than 100 Somali pirates await their trials in Kenyan jails as part of a deal that even the country's members of parliament know nothing about we have raised in Parliament wanting to know the details of this agreement which is treated a top secret between the United States of America and certain nations of the European Union to provide facilities in Kenya for the holding of the suspects the U.N has allocated some four million dollars a year to help the Kenyan justice system cope with the large number of piracy cases but the public defenders who will represent the Pirates still haven't seen any of this money where the facilities where are the funds I'm representing about 32 pirates of the total of about 123 who are already here and in none of the files have I been given even a pin we have fairly functional institutions and they're being exploited by the Western Nations who they are not themselves take these people into their own countries so far on our own full of pirates has been convicted in Kenya the whole Arrangement casts doubts about the Western nation's seriousness in wanting to combat the Somali pirates according to writer Loretta napoleone why taking them to Kenya I mean why not somewhere else this is the typical shortcut solution governments in the west really like I don't want to deal with its problem therefore you know I just you know do the minimum at huge costs for the taxpayer foreign [Music] Cecil is halfway through the Gulf of eight when an alert lookout spots something suspicious because actually I saw something nice foreign [Music] [Music] Rochester I'm closing to your position [Music] the past year has seen a tremendous surge in piracy off the coast of Somalia here in London the piracy has created a whole new industry we have a new industry of into insurance companies security companies that ensure and protect cargos it's a big business as terrorism has become a big business if we look at you know Ransom payments or sort of conservative estimate for 2008 around 50 million you can travel that probably to work out the full cost of piracy in terms of you know your lawyers fees your extra pay to your crew and so on increased insurance premiums and all these additional costs filter down to the likes of you and me I think as consumers as shipping gets more expensive delegate company swinglehurst is one of the very few Insurance Executives who agrees to be interviewed about piracy Insurance tailor-made for the situation in the Gulf of Aden you know for insurance cost things it would be paying about maybe 10 15 000 okay to Transit we were certainly the Pioneers in the market and we received literally tens dozens of inquiries so the Christmas card list Scott suddenly you know it went from let's say you know a tenfold increase some analysts believe it's problematic that too many people now are starting to make big money from the threat of piracy I don't think that the word world population is really interested in stopping the rubber of piracy because they do not understand what the problem is about here in Somalia they think the problem is that foreigners have taken all their fish Reserves foreign [Music] try to stop this illegal fishing it's going on in a big way now under the eyes and nose and in fact in the protection of the Navies pirate Chief Ali Arif recalls the day when he and his father met a large Fleet of foreign trawlers at sea um [Music] camera [Music] Ali's father disappeared in the sea that day the choice is available to me of being killed by a warlord being killed by poverty and hunger and being killed by American Bully I rather be American bullet and with the chance of of winning also something sometime foreign [Music] Cecil is still being pursued by a possible pirate boat the warships which are here to protect Merchant shipping have failed to answer their distress calls not to worship communism thank you because this is motor tanker power CSL yes we have spotted a little bit suspicious Target on our starboard side now it is heading towards our school foreign [Music] foreign gilo India um [Music] meanwhile the warship fridge of nansen also receives a dramatic distress call [Music] an Italian freighter has come under attack a few miles away Pilots have opened fire to force it to stop very fast thank you now this is the European warship I am constantly going to send two fast-moving rips to your position they will come fast upon your ship foreign [Music] foreign [Music] all right [Music] because 100 days have passed since the fine I was hijacked for Christmas the Pirates give their hostages a bottle of whiskey to share among themselves and this is how they celebrate New Year's Eve 2008. yes [Music] foreign [Music] the Pirates have demanded a ransom of 25 million dollars an amount nobody wants to pay London lawyer Stephen Askins is hired to negotiate the most difficult case that we've been involved in was was the Faina you're dealing with irrational people it's not like a standard commercial negotiation where you expect someone to start off very high and you start off very low and you perhaps meet in the middle there are no real rules to it the negotiations are at a standstill one day the Somalians come to the cabin and order the sailors out on Deck is [Music] no karate America back in the Ukraine the Pirates get the reactions thereafter noon it is due to the persistent rumors that the Ukrainian authorities are planning a spectacular rescue operation the mothers of the hostages decide to start negotiating with the Pirates themselves is put in contact with the pirate commander on board the Faina he calls himself Muhammad [Music] is foreign [Music] [Music] Cecil they still haven't heard any news about the suspicious boat which the NATO worship had promised to check out home if you have any information about this this fishing boat we reported earlier that contacted like a transport though he was carrying the gold can you please repeat once again he was transporting something good yes that was a transporting gold done more lead suspects instead oh my God gold yeah transporting gold so Essentials or something foreign foreign [Music] [Music] led by a helicopter from the Dutch Flagship the future of nansen has set full speed Southeast to the men who attacked the Italian cargo vessel jokes with a head start of just 10 nautical miles the chances of finding the culprits are good the prison Barracks are prepared for possible guests the crew has already received information about the attack on the Italian ship and the Navy's up to now feudal hunt for the Pirates [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign a Cambodia thank you speculation is [Music] Sailors and insurance companies no longer believe that the military can solve the piracy problem on their own what we're doing what what I think the um you know the the European you know Naval forces are doing um is is a short-term you know fix it's a Band-Aid British security company Hart is one of the many which openly advertise their armed services to ship owners with the added value of huge discounts on insurance premiums heart provides an armed approach to protection we are quite expensive and it ranges from about 120 to 180 000 pounds roughly and it depends on the type of vessel how long because the quicker the faster the vessel goes the less time it needs our services on board but a general rule of thumb is that we are going to be about twice that of that of a of an unarmed approach here in the mountains of Northern Italy the security company Sig is arranging a selection course for future sea Marshals uh the chief instructor is a former mercenary with extensive experience from work in Africa some of these guys that we have on this course will go down there are willing to go down there and we need to prepare them for what they're going to meet I think that it's just three four guys on this course that is really up for it to go out there now for a job yeah foreign foreign weapons training is an important part of the course and here is some of the Arsenal this company offers its clients M theater then I call the focuses huh go private security contractors like tour guy or frixen think the international Naval forces have lost their credibility because they're reacting too timidly against the Pirates his message to Future clients is this yeah it will be worse I definitely there's no doubt about that I think personally a more brutal Collision Force that's the only thing that could stop this some security companies are now running their own private fleets of armed Patrol boats outside of Somalia there is a fear that this trend will inevitably lead to an escalation also from the Pirates a pirate was telling me you know they do have weapons that can sink most of the vessels on the sea but they have been reluctant to do it but if the back is brought against the wall I don't know what they are able to do or what they are likely to do record in February 2009 a Ukrainian billionaire announced that he would pay the ransom for the crew of the Faina 134 days after the hijacking two boxes containing more than three million dollars in cash are parachuted onto the vessel's deck is [Music] a few hours later the Pirates and the money are gone the U.S Navy moves in with much needed food and medical supplies [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign what kind of problems would it create for your company if the piracy of Somalia were to disappear overnight I mean obviously it'd be sad in some ways because you know we as I said earlier we've probably enhanced our earnings you know by let's say 30 35 this year [Music] troll many of the crew members on board the warship fridge of nonsense have a new impression of the Pirates they've come to fight um foreign [Music] Cecil can finally take a break after a 30-hour nerve-wracking Passage through the Gulf of Aden [Music] OS a fence the sailors on the merchant ship continue their Voyage with mixed feelings about the military and their effort to fight the Pirates Elizabeth [Music] foreign [Music] attacks continues to increase the cost of you know keeping this kind of ships at Sea is astronomical so we have to re-invent recreate a new way of finding a piracy we've seen how Pirates are often fed and set free despite having clear intentions of attacking ships because of the underlying legal dilemmas facing the multinational Naval forces it's more political and publicity than actually doing the job it's not cost effective it's not protective it's not working the overall solution is on land what we do is see at sea is definitely necessary but the solution is in a stable Somalia I think both the critics and the pirate Hunters share is an understanding that before the sailors of the world's Merchant fleets can ever start to feel safer the International Community must do something about the conditions in war-torn Somalia meanwhile Pirates of Somalia are thriving from the ever-increasing ransoms paid by ship owners on the beaches of pirate Capital Ale Ali Arif is even considering raising the stakes [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: ENDEVR

Views: 2,852,250

Keywords: Free documentary, documentaries, full documentary, hd documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), Business Documentary, somali pirates, modern pirates, african pirates, pirates, pirate, modern pirate, piracy, modern piracy

Id: vaL_vSdZKZo

Length: 57min 53sec (3473 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 18 2023