Make Somalia a Better Country
Remember the American man and the three Britons who got caught with over $3m, brought into Somalia to pay a ransom to pirates? Luckily they have been released, with the government keeping all the money. This is one of the latest news coming from Somalia, a country increasingly at the center of the attention of media due to the vast number of maritime hijacking. International bodies and experts are now studying solutions that could effectively tackle this serious issue and guarantee safe trade across the sea and a brighter future for Somalia.
It is of extreme importance to ensure the security of ship crews operating in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, seen by many as off-limits areas. Considered a problem of global scale, costing between $7 and $12 billion each year, it is in everybody's interests to cooperate in order to find the best solutions to the piracy problem.
Very often there is no place to try pirates, leaving majority of them free to carry on their illegal activities, mainly due to the inefficiency of the Somali central government. The United Nations have, on the 21st of June, underlined the importance of creating specialized courts that could deal with crimes related to piracy. By doing so, it is hoped that many pirates could go to jail, ensuring marine security in the area.
Somali fishermen accuse western countries of illegally dumping toxic waste in their waters as well as illegal fishing. For this reason, stricter control over the operations of fishing off the Somali cost would be necessary as to guarantee local fishermen to continue with their activities and not be forced to become pirates.
It could be argued, however, that fishermen and other people living in this poor corner of the world have realized that piracy is much more lucrative than any other job: young generations might in fact be keener to become pirates than getting any normal job, attracted by the luxurious lifestyle that some ‘successful’ pirates can afford.
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