​

The Sailors's Society has set up a crisis centre in Durban, South Africa, to provide 24-hour rapid response and trauma counselling to victims of piracy attacks and other disasters at sea.

The move comes in response to increased piracy activity off the coast of West Africa and worries that seafarers traumatised by piracy attacks are not getting adequate care. The centre will work closely with the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP), which specialises in the treatment of seafarers held hostage by pirates.Under the Sailors' Society scheme, port  chaplains trained in trauma-incident response and the MPHRP`s own care programme will provide a 24-hour service in South Africa, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique and Reunion. Reverend Boet Van Schalkwyk, who will head up the centre, said: '' We were finding that traumatised crews were no longer being dispatched to Durban after their release, which raised fears that they were being repatriated before receiving first-line trauma counselling. By making this resource available, we can meet this need for seafarers as near after an incident as possible.''

He also says there is a need for long-term treatment of seafarers, as his experience has shown trauma can continue to affect a seafarer's life long after an incident.

The recent Oceans Beyond Piracy (OBP) report on the '' State of Maritime Piracy'' says 5000 seafarers were attacked in Gulf of Guinea, the Western Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia in 2014.

When needed, a mobile call-out team will fly in to help local chaplains to care for piracy victims and other incidents at sea at western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Guinea ports.