UK, Mauritius ink piracy deal
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and his
Mauritius counterpart Navinchandra Ramgoolam signed a deal Friday for
suspected pirates caught by the British navy to be prosecuted on the
Indian Ocean island.
Cameron said the agreement signalled that Indian Ocean states were stepping up the battle against piracy.
Britain has similar deals with the
Seychelles and Tanzania as part of efforts to protect vital shipping
lanes against Somali pirates.
“Piracy is a violent crime and
pirates should be in no doubt that they will be arrested at sea,
prosecuted in regional states and imprisoned,” said Cameron.
Piracy has flourished off war-torn
Somalia, outwitting international efforts to stamp out the scourge,
including patrols by NATO and European Union warships since 2008 and
tough sentencing of captured pirates.
Several other nations, including
Russia and China, also provide protection for their ships as they pass
through the busy shipping route through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian
Ocean.
Pirates
are currently holding dozens of ships and hundreds of sailors for
ransom, and have also branched out into land-based kidnapping.Source: http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/uk-mauritius-ink-piracy-deal-1.1315263#.T9Jye5hadJc
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