The crew of a product tanker operated by Switzerland’s Fractal Shipping helped to pluck 47 people from a stricken dinghy in the company’s first migrant rescue since starting operations in 2022.
The 47,128-dwt Ellora (built 2007) was contacted by the Greek authorities to help those onboard the small vessel about 130 km off the coast of the island of Rhodes, the company said.
The ship was sailing in ballast from the Turkish port of Ceyhan to load at the Greek port of Aspropyrgos when it was alerted about the migrant boat, according to Kpler ship-tracking data.
The 47 included 18 women and three children, two of them under a year old. The company is awaiting instructions from Greek authorities about where they should be taken.
The Ellora is one of 25 ships commercially controlled by Dubai-registered Fractal Marine DMCC, according to Equasis.
Fractal was part of a group of shipping companies that hauled Russian oil following the invasion of Ukraine but has since moved out of the crude trade to comply with Western sanctions, with prices breaking through the price cap set by the G7.
It has denied it is part of the so-called dark or shadow fleet that hauled Russian oil in breach of sanctions.
“Ships that are contacted by authorities are not given the choice when there is an SOS but they have to be reachable,” Fractal Shipping chief executive Mathieu Philippe said. “In other words, not ‘dark fleet’.”
The rescue by the Ellora was just one during a busy 24 hours of search-and-rescue operations amid a sharp spike in attempts to reach Europe. The number of migrants arriving by boat to Europe in 2023 is already the highest since 2016.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said it had rescued 258 people on two wooden boats that had left Libya late on Thursday, and they would be taken to the Italian port of Salerno.
European leaders
Meanwhile, the Spanish coastguard reported rescuing 262 migrants in three boats trying to reach the Canary Islands early on Friday.
The United Nations said 190,000 people have arrived by sea in Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta this year. More than 2,500 people are believed to have died attempting the crossing.
The migration issue was discussed at a meeting of European leaders in Spain this week. The country has said it cannot cope with the numbers arriving without help from the European Union.
Despite the spike in numbers, it remains well down from 2015, when more than 1m people arrived by boat, sparking political upheaval in Europe and the resurgence of anti-migration parties across the continent.
Read more
- Titanic sub disaster highlights ‘need for search and rescue upgrade’
- Two insanitary Cameroon ships banned by Paris MOU as another does a runner
- Seafarers evacuated as handysize bulker burns off Indonesia
- Cruise ship aground in Greenland waits for rescue vessels to arrive
- MOL PCTC rescues sailors following shark attack off Australia
