In response to a spate of home invasions and theft targeting the dozens of yachts anchored in Majuro’s lagoon, police have begun nightly lagoon patrols, arresting several suspects in the crime wave.
“It is a sad state of affairs that the Marshall Islands is now listed as a place of frequent piracy on cruising websites and cruising advisories around the world,” Bonny Taggart, director of the Marshall Islands Council of Non-Government Organizations who lives on a yacht, said Friday. “It is now officially the second most Ounsafe’ place for cruising yachts.”
Americans living on yachts have stepped appeals for help to the United States Embassy and directly to Marshall Islands President Jurelang Zedkaia.
Zedkaia’s chief of staff, Chris deBrum, called this “very disturbing news and state of affairs.”
The embassy “has opened discussion (about travel advisories) with Washington and we will make our decision after we receive advice from consular experts,” U.S. Embassy Charge Eric Watnik said Friday. “Consular travel warnings can significantly affect a country’s ability to attract American citizen visitors and are issued only after serious deliberation,” he said.
Taggart said yacht owners are frustrated with a lack of response from police despite numerous reports of ongoing break ins. “To date, the yachting community has neither heard nor seen any visible signs of any action on the part of the local or national police to conduct an investigation,” she said.
Some yachts sail to Majuro and the Marshall Islands to avoid the cyclone (typhoon) season south of the equator. Frequently, the number of yachts anchored in Majuro swells to 30 or more between January and June.
“The last three-to-four months have seen at least a dozen break-ins or attempted break-ins,” said yacht owner Chuck Handy, who has been in the Marshall Islands for two years. “Tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear has been stolen, boats trashed, dinghies slashed and yachts cut adrift in the night.
“In the two years that I have been here I have been boarded by pirates and thieves on three occasions,” said Handy.
There was over $20,000 worth of items taken (from yachts) last week, said Majuro scuba dive operator Matthew Holly.
He expressed concern about the impact violence against visitors has on tourism. “I am having a very hard time to convince anyone to come here for any tourism-related visit,” he said. “The RMI government has no idea what they are losing by not protecting and establishing tourism folks.”
Marshall Islands Visitors Authority General Manager Dolores deBrum-Kattil said her agency has repeatedly asked government agencies and departments for action on enforcing tourism-related improvements, with no positive result.
“There is only so much that we can do,” she said. “But with the continued lack of support from partner agencies, organizations and especially the government, it can get really hard.
“The yacht industry is basically all we have right now as far as tourism goes,” deBrum-Kattil said. “If government agencies sit on this issue, this industry will go away. When the yachts leave, there will be next to no visitors to the outer islands, no more help in transporting materials, food or fuel, no more help in the schools and communities, we’ll see an impact in the stores, taxicabs, gas stations, restaurants and last but not least, the very existence of tourism in the Marshall Islands and the MIVA Office.”
