Maltese forces take control of tanker after migrants overpower rescuers

TV Malta showed video of tanker heading for dock after intervention by Armed Forces of Malta

A vessel “overpowered” by a group of migrants was stormed by Maltese rescue forces early on Thursday, the Times of Malta reports the Armed Forces of Malta saying.

The vessel, the tanker Elhiblu 1, with 108 migrants on board, including 12 children and 19 women, docked in Malta today at around 8.30 am, local time.

The migrants had been rescued and were being taken back to Libya when the incident was sparked some six miles from the Libyan coast. The ship was then ordered to head north by five ring leaders, the Times of Malta reports.

The Maltese authorities established contact with the captain of the Elhiblu 1 when it was about 30 nautical miles away and proceeding towards Malta.

A Maltese patrol boat stopped the tanker from entering Maltese territorial waters.

A special operations unit team, supported by patrol boats and a helicopter was dispatched on board and secured the vessel, handing control of the ship to the captain, the Times of Malta reports the army as saying.

ICS “VERY CONCERNED”

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said it was is very concerned by reports that the the Palau-flagged tanker Elhiblu 1, had been taken over by migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, reportedly because the ship was going to return the some 100 rescued persons to Libya.

ICS is still establishing the details of the ongoing incident, but welcomes initial reports that the Maltese authorities have taken action to ensure that the situation is safely resolved.

“Since the Italian Government changed its previous policy of providing prompt and predicable disembarkation of migrants rescued at sea, the current incident is one which the industry has feared,”’ said ICS Secretary General, Guy Platten. “ICS is carefully watching this new development, which it will seek to raise with the UN International Maritime Organization which is in session in London this week.”

“If a ship is directed to disembark rescued people in Libya, it creates a potential for conflict between the crew and desperate and frustrated people that might object to being returned,” said Platten. “Given the numbers picked up in such large scale rescue operations, the crew of the rescuing ship can easily be outnumbered and overwhelmed. Masters of merchant ships should expect that coastal states’ search and rescue authorities will co-ordinate and provide for disembarkation in a place of safety, both for those rescued and for the seafarers involved in the rescue.”

“The merchant seafarers on board the ship involved in these incidents are civilians,” said Platten. “They can be severely affected by the traumatic situations they have to face, having complied with their legal and humanitarian obligation to come to the rescue of anyone found in distress at sea.”

Merchant ships are still diverted by Rescue Co-ordination Centers to support large scale rescue operations in the Mediterranean and have rescued tens of thousands of people since the current crisis began in 2015.