Another aspect of this is that the pirates themselves have generally treated any hostages very well, including supplying familiar foods for them if they are European and so on. The Somali's understand well enough that if they treat the hostages well then some shipping company with a big fat wallet will suck up the insurance premium and have their insurance company pay the ransom to get their people back.
If the Somali's treat the hostages like shit or kill a few of them, the pirates figure the rest of the world is likely to start sending in some special forces to give them a kick in the bollocks. It also means that the general public might start putting pressure on the various governments to actually do something serious about the piracy.
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