Catherine Ashton wants to see the suspects on trial as close to home as possible instead of transported to Europe for prosecution.
An EU armada has detained scores of suspected pirates in recent months but only a handful will ever wind up in court. The vast majority were disarmed and put back on their boats with enough food and fuel to reach land.
EU nations are reluctant to pay the cost of transporting them back to Europe for trial and it is hard to successfully prosecute pirates unless they are caught red-handed hijacking or attacking a ship.
Compounding the problem, Kenya — one of only two African nations to sign an agreement with the EU to take on piracy cases — recently stopped accepting suspects, saying they put undue strain on the country’s congested justice system.
Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said on Monday that Kenya’s decision made Ashton’s trip “highly relevant.”
Van Middelkoop welcomed Ashton’s planned tour of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Seychelles as a possible way of putting more piracy suspects behind bars.
He said the Dutch frigate HMS Tromp that recently served with the EU mission detained 83 pirates in two months and turned 73 loose.
The remaining 10 were arrested April 5 in a daring high-seas rescue mission after they hijacked a German container ship.
The pirates were flown back to the Netherlands where they are in jail awaiting transfer to Germany where they will be put on trial.
