A crew of poor fishermen were granted freedom over the weekend after spending years in hell as prisoners of Somali pirates.
After four and a half years in captivity, during which the prisoners were beaten, forced to eat rats to survive, and held in a hostile and unforgiving desert in Somalia, the 26 remaining crew members of the Naham 3 were released, reports The New York Times. Their release brought an end to the second longest Somali pirate hostage ordeal in history. The pirates held them for so long because they mistakenly believed that their captives were worth millions, and refused to settle for a lesser sum.
There were initially 29 crew members. One died during the hijacking of the Naham 3, and two others died after falling ill during captivity. The crew members hailed from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, CNN reports.
The Naham 3, which flew the flag of Oman, was hijacked off the Seychelles March 26, 2012. The sailors were held prisoner in Dabagala, near the town of Harardhere, which was a key pirate base when piracy was rampant.
Somali pirates have become less of a problem since commercial vessels began sailing with armed guards and Western naval vessels started patrolling problem areas. A few years ago, pirates operating off the coast of Somali cost the world billions of dollars a year.
There were reportedly no recorded Somali pirate attacks on commercial vessels last year, and none have been recorded this year. In 2011, there were 176 attacks.
Despite the decrease in attacks, Somali pirates have continued to hold onto their prisoners from previous attacks, expecting dollars to rain down from the sky. “The pirates were uneducated, obstructionist, unmotivated and unrealistic,” Compass Risk Management’s Leslie Edwards, the lead negotiator, told the New York Times. “They picked poor fishermen from poor countries from poor families. They were dreaming about huge amounts of money they were never going to get.” They didn’t accept that concept easily.
Working with clan elders in Somalia, negotiators were able to convince the pirates to settle for a sum that would cover the costs of holding prisoners in captivity for 1,672 days. While the exact sum paid to the pirates was not released, negotiators said the figure was negligible compared to what the pirates initially demanded in exchange for their prisoners.
The freed prisoners have been sent back to their respective countries. Some have said that they plan to stay away from the sea for good.
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