Critical situation, knife fight on board of container ship with dozens of migrants > 자료실

Critical situation, knife fight on board of container ship with dozens of migrants

Posted in Maritime Security by Mikhail Voytenko

May 06, 2020 at 14:57.

Situation on board of container ship MARINA has become critical. 13-crew including Ukrainians, is encountering shortages of food and fresh water, and has to recycle aircon water for washing and toilet purposes.

78 migrants on board, of the majority claiming to be Bangladeshi, the rest being allegedly from Morocco, Chad, Libya and Sudan, are on the verge of explosion – revolt or mutiny or just chaotic violence.

There was already a knife fight among them, which thankfully, didn’t involve crew.
Predictably, Malta and Italy refuse to let the ship in and disembark rescued migrants, who may become violent towards crew any time. Crew of course, is absolutely unprepared to handle such kind of situation, such an extremity.

As of 1400 UTC May 6, MARINA was in the same position, drifting S off Lampedusa. Italy or Malta may at least send a Navy or CG ship, to control migrants and to provide most necessary items, such as food and water.

Initial story:

May 4: Three merchant ships were involved into a migrants rescue operation in Mediterranean, which resulted in rescue of 121 migrants in the morning May 4. Rescue operation was coordinated and supervised by MRCC Malta with NGO Alert Phone as their watchdog.

While tanker PYXIS EPSILON (IMO 9708760) managed to avoid taking migrants on board and went off with only escorting boat with migrants to Italian waters, container ship MARINA (IMO 9252864) had to take on board 78 migrants, and as of 1600 UTC May 4, according to track, she was drifting off Lampedusa Italy, “waiting for instructions”. How long will the ship have to wait for “the instructions”, or in other words, for permission to offload migrants in any country agreeing to accept them? Nobody knows.

Now, a small ship with small crew and with limited supplies, is having on board some migrants, almost all of them being young males. Besides crew, MARINA is carrying containers with cargoes. Owner has obligations and schedule to stick to.

From any point of view, situation with MARINA can’t be characterized and assessed as anything less than major accident. The ship, the cargo and the crew are in danger. Whatever the outcome, owner is to suffer substantial losses, guaranteed. If ship’s stuck for several days, let alone weeks, nobody knows what migrants reaction may be.