IMO Secretary-General calls for urgent release of seafarers held by pirates
The Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, has appealed for international efforts to secure the release of 44 seafarers being held captive in Somali waters by pirates and armed robbers. The crews are aboard three vessels — Honour 25, Eureka and Sward — hijacked in separate incidents between April and May off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.
Addressing the IMO Council in London, the Secretary-General described the crews as running critically low on food and water while living under the constant threat of violence. Over the three months to July, the IMO recorded 24 attempted and actual incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden region.
The organisation also reported that globally, incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea rose by 17 per cent between 2024 and 2025, from 146 to 171. The IMO urged shipowners and operators to apply the Best Management Practices for Maritime Security and to carry out thorough risk assessments before transiting the region.
Why It Matters
Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea sits directly on the approach routes to the Arabian Sea, and its costs — higher insurance, rerouting, armed protection and crew risk — are borne across the region, including by South Asian crews. The IMO figures matter because they establish that the threat has not receded but increased. For Pakistan, which supplies seafarers to international shipping and whose trade moves through these waters, the practical questions are about crew welfare protections, risk assessment practice and the capacity of regional naval coordination. This is a case where policy attention to seafarer protection is not a humanitarian side issue but a direct commercial and strategic one.
Source
International Maritime Organization — Read the original
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