Five migrants arrested after Maltese special forces raid brings end to high seas hijack drama

Five migrants who allegedly led the hijacking of a tanker in the Mediterranean to avoid being returned to Libya were arrested in Malta on Thursday after special forces stormed the vessel to take back control.

The five men, some of whom were led off the merchant vessel in plastic handcuffs, were among 108 asylum seekers who were rescued by the El Hiblu 1 tanker north of Libya on Tuesday.

The tanker was ordered by Libyan authorities to take the migrants to Tripoli, but they allegedly subjected the 12-man crew to physical threats and forced the vessel to sail north instead, towards Europe.

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Migrants in Libya are held in horrific conditions and are often subjected to beatings, torture and rape, according to the UN and humanitarian agencies.

The Maltese military intervened in the early hours of Thursday, with armed commandoes boarding the tanker in an operation that involved Maltese naval vessels and helicopters.

Maltese authorities established communications with the captain of the 170ft-long oil tanker when it was about 30 nautical miles away from Malta and proceeding towards the island.

"The captain repeatedly stated that he was not in control of the vessel and that he and his crew were being forced and threatened by a number of migrants to proceed to Malta," the authorities said.

The tanker was escorted by navy vessels to Valletta, Malta’s capital, where the five alleged ringleaders were arrested and taken away for questioning.

They are likely to be charged with “illegally forcing the captain of the ship to hand over control through coercive action and changing its course,” Maltese government sources said.

No one was injured during the high seas drama, but the outnumbered crew said they were threatened with assault unless they followed orders.  

The rescued migrants consisted of 77 men, 19 women and 12 children.

“We do not shirk responsibility, despite our size. We will now follow all international rules accordingly,” said Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister.

Matteo Salvini, the hardline deputy prime minister of Italy, had called the migrants “pirates” and vowed that they would not be allowed to land on Italian soil.

"Immigration is managed by criminals and should be blocked by any legal means necessary," he said.

Sea-Eye, a German migrant rescue NGO, said one of its vessels had overheard radio messages between a European military aircraft and the captain of the tanker.

"The captain of the ship…said unequivocally on the radio that people are very upset and do not want to be brought back to Libya," Sea-Eye said.

Vincent Cochetel, the UN refugee agency’s special envoy for the central Mediterranean, said that the safety of merchant ship crews was as important as that of “human beings fleeing a hellish situation and not wanting to return there.”

Italy’s populist coalition closed its ports to rescued migrants last summer, leading to a number of stand-offs with other EU countries over boatloads of rescued migrants.

There has been a sharp drop in the number of asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean, as the EU-trained Libyan coast guard intercepts them and returns them to the Libyan coast.

Humanitarian organisations said the migrants should not be characterised as criminals or “pirates” because they were trying to avoid returning to a hellish existence in Libya.

“It is entirely legitimate for people found in distress at sea to reject being returned to Libya, the very place they know they will only continue to suffer the gravest of violations of their rights and the most degrading treatment,” said Johannes Bayer, the chairman of Sea-Watch.

 

EU countries such as Italy and Malta "alert the Libyan coast guard when refugees and migrants are spotted at sea so they can be taken back to Libya, despite knowing that people there are arbitrarily detained and exposed to widespread torture, rape, killings and exploitation," said Matteo de Bellis, an expert on migrants for Amnesty International.

In November, dozens of migrants seized control of a container ship that had picked them up at sea, barricading themselves inside and refusing to disembark in the Libyan port of Misrata.

After 10 days, Libyan authorities forcibly removed them from the ship and placed them in a detention centre.

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