General
The Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme by Dr. Peter M. Swift (2012)
The Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme by Dr. Peter M. Swift, Chairman, Steering Group Chairman of the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme
The Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (“MPHRP”) is a pan-industry alliance of ship owners, managers, manning agents, insurers, maritime unions, professional and welfare associations working together with governmental organisations with one aim, namely -: "to assist seafarers and their families with the humanitarian aspects of a traumatic incident caused by a piracy attack, armed robbery or being taken hostage". This charitable, non-political, programme was formally launched in 2011 and funded initially by the ITF Seafarers Trust and the TK Foundation.
Since 2003 more than 3,000 ships and nearly 80,000 crew members have been subject to serious attacks by pirates and armed robbers. These have taken place in the South China Sea, Malacca Straits and Caribbean and more recently have intensified further off the Somali Coast into the Indian Ocean and off the West African Coast in the Gulf of Guinea. In the period 2007-2011, with increased pirate activity off Somalia 3,322 seafarers have been held hostage out of a total of 3,967 worldwide.