11 JAN 2026
Arrests by the Indonesian Marine Police in July and August saw a sharp drop in ship boarding incidents in the last five months of 2025
A sharp drop in ship robbery incidents in the Singapore Strait was seen in the second half of the year following arrests by the Indonesian Marine Police, however several groups till remain active.
According to the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC) there we 108 incidents in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in 2025, while the organisation groups the two Straits the vast majority of the incidents occurred in the Singapore Strait primarily in the Indonesian waters of the eastbound lane.
With nearly one incident every two days in the first half of 2025, four times the level of the previous year, the industry had become increasingly concerned at the frequency of vessel boardings. The perpetrators also widened the types of vessels targeted to include container ships, which accounted for 10% of incidents in the Straits in 2025. The number of incidents in the busy waterway was for the whole of 2025 was a 19-year high.
Of the 108 incidents in the Straits some 94 took place between January – July 2025. The Indonesian Marine Police in Batam made a series of arrests of ship robbers on three occasions in July and August 2025 which resulted in a sharp drop off the number of incidents.
Between August and December 2025 just 14 incidents were reported, although numbers rose somewhat in the final months of the year with five incidents each month in November and December, compared to just one or two incidents a month in August to October.
The Indonesian Marine Police believe that two or three groups remain active. Lee Min Yui, Deputy Director of ReCAAP, told a media briefing on 9 January that the Indonesian Marine Police said there were two or three groups that were still active in the Singapore Strait region. “[The] Indonesian Marine Police are still trying to arrest these groups.”
Indonesia is not a member of ReCAAP, however, the Indonesian Marine Police attended a forum held by ReCAAP with representatives of the shipping industry on 9 January. Lee said the Indonesian Marine Police asked the industry for help with providing evidence such as ship board CCTV footage of perpetrators to help catch the groups.
Overall, in Asia ReCAAP said there were 132 incidents of piracy and armed robbery reported in 2025, up 23% from 107 in the previous year. Of these incidents 130 occurred in territorial waters and were classified as armed robbery, while there two incidents on the high seas classified as piracy.
The increase in numbers was driven by incidents in the Straits of Singapore and Malacca (SOMS) and there were fewer incidents reported at anchorages in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
“The sharp increase in number of incidents in the SOMS in 2025 does not indicate a corresponding increase in threat to maritime trade passing through the SOMS. The higher number of incidents largely corresponds to minor petty theft cases,” said ReCAAP ISC Executive Director, Vijay D Chafekar.