Half a million Euro a month to protect the Spanish tuna fleet

Half a million Euro a month to protect the Spanish tuna fleet
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By m.p. - Nov 23, 2009 - 3:01 PM

Some of the Alakrana crew meeting their families on the Seychelles - EFE

It's understood that half the money to pay the security guards on board the ships is to come from the state

The private security employed to protect the Spanish tuna fleet from pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean will cost half a million € every month, El Mundo has revealed. The amount covers four security guards for each of the 13 trawlers, equating to an average salary for each of the men of 9,500 €.

The paper said they are armed with weapons with a range of up to 2 kilometres.

The ship owners are to meet half the cost and the remainder is to come from the state: half of that from central government, and the remainder from the regional government in the autonomous community concerned.

The Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, is meanwhile expected to appear in Congress on Wednesday to inform the chamber on the government’s management of the hostage crisis of the ‘Alakrana’. The crew and trawler were released last Tuesday after 47 days held in captivity by the pirates and the payment of what the pirates claimed was a ransom of 2.3 million €.

It’s understood that the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will not be present as he is travelling from Saudi Arabia to Germany that day, for a meeting with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

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