Piracy in Southeast Asia is currently dominated by three “danager zones”, according to the latest report by the Singapore-based Information Fusion Centre (IFC).
The semi-annual regional piracy report identified the three areas as the Straits of Singapore, an area around Anambas Archipelago and the Sulu Sea.
The IFC report said that the situation in the South East Asia region was “generally calm”, despite the first real piracy attack of the year against a bulk carrier underway off the Anambas Islands on 22 July.
It said the Straits of Singapore and its approaches had seen 11 incidents in the first half of 2019 compared to 21 incidents in the whole of 2017 and 20 in 2018.
“Some robbery has continued since the beginning of the year, mainly in the Indonesian areas of Batam with neighboring islands overlooking the Singapore Strait, but also in Dumai and Belawan, overlooking the Straits of Malacca,” the report said.
“These groups have the ability to board slow speed ships, mainly at anchorages and at night, and are usually armed with knives, iron bars and sometimes firearms, but avoid clashes with crews and prefer to flee if the alarm is given.
“The perpetrators are very often local fishermen from Batam and neighboring islands on the Indonesian side, such as Karimun Island.
“They are generally not arrested and probably will continue to exploit security weaknesses in this region – mainly Indonesian – in the coming months.”
Around the Anambas Archipelago it said that while there had been only one incident every three or four months, there had been a “certain level of violence”, probably committed by a gang of local pirates.
In the Sulu Sea, the IFC said there was the constant threat from the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf and other criminal groups targeting slow targets with low freeboard to seek ransom.
However, it said thanks to the action of the three neighboring countries, the situation with regard to maritime safety had improved with “only” three kidnappings during the 18 last months.
Established on 2009, the IFC is a regional maritime security (MARSEC) centre situated at the Changi Command and Control Centre (CC2C) and hosted by the Republic of Singapore Navy.
The IFC aims to facilitate information-sharing and collaboration between its partners to enhance regional maritime security.
Over the last decade, the IFC said it has been "at the forefront of providing actionable information" to cue responses by regional and international navies, coast guards and other maritime agencies.
This includes piracy, sea robbery, maritime terrorism, contraband smuggling, illegal fishing and irregular human migration.
