Mumbai, April 27: Over 2,000 members affiliated to various seafarers’ unions and associations of shipowners today carried out a ‘morcha’ and submitted a petition to the Directorate General of Shipping demanding safety of Indian seafarers from pirates.
“We demand that the government should take more effective measures in combating the menace of piracy. We want the matter to be addressed at the level of the United Nations,” National Union of Seafarers’ of India (NUSI) General Secretary, Abdul Gani Serang, said in a statement here.
Maritime Union of India, Indian National Shipowners Association, Foreign Owners Representatives and Ship Managers Association, Maritime Association of Shipowners, Shipmanagers and Agents, Company of Master Mariners of India, Institute of Marine Engineers of India, Nautical Institute, Dufferin Rajendra and Chanakya Ex-Cadets Association, among others, participated in the morcha.
In September last, the Panama-flagged vessel ‘Asphalt Venture’, with 15 crew members on board, was hijacked by Somalian pirates.
-Agencies