Africa-Press – Eswatini. Three sanctioned ships have been busted sailing the seas under the flag of the country.
These vessels it has been disclosed first carried Syrian flags but later changed to Eswatini. These vessels were sanctioned by US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
It is alleged that these ships were engaged in illicit activities such as transporting stolen grain and also oil in what is termed as ‘dark fleet’ between war-torn countries such as Syria, Russia and Ukraine.
If a ship is sanctioned by the US Treasury, it means that it is subject to restrictions imposed by the US government due to its involvement in activities that violate the US laws or international regulations. The sanctions can have various consequences.
According to Bosphorus Observer geopolitical consultant, Yörük I?ik a sanctioned Syriamar’s flagship Souria, changed name to San Damian and flag to Eswatini but then deflagged, transited Bosphorus, which is part of the only passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Bosphorus is a major sea access route for numerous countries. It is said the ship was en-route from occupied Sevastopol to Syria carrying stolen grain.
Two other vessels which joined the San Damian (IMO: 9274331) in the sanctioned vessels include San Severus (IMO: 9385233) and San Cosmas (IMO: 9274343), which had been registered with the Eswatini flag.
In one of the incidents it is alleged that a Syrian ship which was using the Eswatini flag is former Syriamar’s Syria flag vessel Finikia, which changed name to San Severus and flag to Eswatini (but recently deflagged) was also carrying stolen grain enroute to Syria.
The law stipulates that every Eswatini registered vessel must be owned through a Eswatini entity or a foreign maritime entity.
According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data, the three ships are still signalling that they are flagged by Eswatini via automatic identification system data.
The concern is that the registering of sanctioned ships to use the Eswatini flag is happening because the country is not a member of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a global standard setting authority for the safety, security and environmental performance of international shipping. Its main role is to create a regulatory framework for the shipping industry that is fair and effective, universally adopted and universally implemented.
IMO currently has 175 member States and three associate members and Eswatini is not on the list. The latest country to be registered to IMO membership is Botswana which registered in 2021.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works Thulani Mkhaliphi when probed about the flagged ships confirmed knowledge of one ship having been registered under the country’s flag. However, he said they engaged with those involved and according to their understanding the registration was withdrawn.
The country is not yet at a stage to register any vessels under Eswatini flag. He said there were some protocols and systems checks that need to be firmed up prior to this.
“We were, however, alerted of provisional registration of a certain vessel by Eswatini Maritime Affairs and Development and we called them for a meeting on February 5 to enquire about this and they confirmed knowledge of the vessel (Sam Damian) which they had provisionally registered.
We brought it to their attention that there is nothing in our agreement which speaks of provisional registration and testing of their systems and they concurred and the provisional registration was cancelled immediately,” the PS stated.
Mkhaliphi said to their knowledge all provisional registrations were withdrawn. Adding, he said; “even now I reached out to the company and they have confirmed that there is no vessel registered under Eswatini flag anywhere.
We have asked our global network to be on high alert and let us know of any persons abusing our country flag anywhere in the world,” Mkhaliphi stated.
He said there was very sophisticated surveillance system of all vessels traversing high seas and the country was tapping into this network so that it can be kept informed of any misdemeanours.
“Should we find that the information provided by the investor is inaccurate we shall definitely deal with that decisively. We hope that it will not get to that so that we focus on the massive benefits that will come with the maritime sector in the Eswatini economy,” Mkhaliphi stated.
Assistant director General for Eswatini Maritime Affairs and Development Tricia Munro when probed about the company’s operations on Friday referred questions to the director whom she said was out of the country on business travel. She was called again yesterday evening and insisted that she was not the rightful person to respond to the queries.
The Director Bongani Ginindza was texted on his WhatsApp but there was no response by the time of going to print.
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