Somali pirates are hiring interpreters to overcome the English language barrier so as to communicate with their hostages and negotiate with respective governments to arrive at a ransom amount for the release of captives.        

This was revealed by five Indian sailors, who were held hostage on-board the merchant vessel 'Iceberg I' for about three years, before their release last month.        

The sea brigands reward these interpreters with the handsome 10-15% share of the total ransom money they secure for releasing the hostages. "It was through interpretors that we were told that the ransom amount was kept at USD 10 million", said Ganesh Mohite, one of the hostages, at a press conference held in Mumbai.