Arabian Gulf and most of Indian Ocean are now effectively lawless, warns union.
A leading seafarer federation has warned it could ask members to boycott areas affected by piracy.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) said that seafarers should prepare to avoid the Gulf of Aden, off the Somali coast, the Arabian Sea and the wider Indian Ocean.
In a hard hitting statement sent to IFW, ITF seafarers’ section chair Dave Heindel said: “All the Arabian Gulf and most of the Indian Ocean are now effectively lawless.
“Yet there is a way that control can be regained: by actively going after pirates, stopping them and prosecuting them.
“Not this ludicrous situation of taking away their guns and setting them free to strike again.
“If we daily allow a few thousand thugs to rack up the danger and violence then we will soon reach a point where there is no alternative but to stop putting people and ships within their reach – with all the effects that could have on world trade and oil and food prices.”
Avoiding vital trade routes like the Indian Ocean could have a “dramatic effect” on transport costs and delivery times, it warned.
Re-routing on a liner trade often means adding another ship to the service to maintain the schedule.
On a Europe - Far East route, re-routing around the Cape of Good Hope would increase the costs by US$89 million a year ($74.4 million in fuel and $14.6 million in charter expenses).
The ITF has also endorsed the need to neutralise the threat of the captured, hostage-crewed motherships that are allowing pirates to roam the Indian Ocean unmolested. It recommended the carrying of military guards on ships, and recognised the use of private armed guards, subject to certain conditions.
It also called on ship owners to avoid sending their ships through pirate infested areas.
It warned the risk of passing through the affected area and the knowledge of the inhuman manner in which captured seafarers would be treated amount to a breach of their duty of care to seafarers.
Should a seafarer be killed by a pirate attack while the vessel transits the high risk area, it could amount to corporate manslaughter, it added.
The ITF took the step after a week-long consultation sparked by the increasing number and range of Somali pirate attacks, and by their now routine use of extreme violence and death threats against the 800 mariners they are currently holding hostage.
The global union federation has 201 maritime trade union members and represents 720,000 seafarers worldwide.
As part of an on-going campaign, IFW is running a series of articles analysing the real impact of piracy on the maritime and supply chain industry, and the people employed within it – the vessel operators and crews that work at great personal risk keep global trade flowing.