News

Illegal Migrants Intercepted on a Cargo Ship at Klaipeda Port

A cargo ship carrying two illegal migrants, possibly Algerian citizens, arrived at Klaipeda port. At the end of the inspection, officers of the Pagėgiai team of the SBGS Special Purpose Division ensured that the migrants did not disembark from the ship.

This ship with the Maltese flag had arrived from the Russian port of Ust-Luga to Klaipeda with a cargo of fertilizers on December 24 last year. The officers of the Port Border Guard already had preliminary information that there may be illegal migrants.

After unloading the cargo of fertilizers from the ship at the end of December, it sailed empty into international waters and waited there until it could return to Klaipeda port to load another cargo. It arrived at the port again from the outer area of the Baltic Sea, where a grain cargo was to be loaded.

The ship was being constantly monitored by Klaipėda Special Purpose Division Pagėgiai team officers. It was then scheduled to sail to Algeria.

The master and 18 crew members are Filipino nationals, all of whose documents are in order.

There are two illegal migrants on board who introduced themselves as Algerian citizens. They were enclosed in separate locked rooms of the ship. According to the captain, the migrants who had entered the craft illegally were detected when the ship sailed to Ust-Luga from the port of Oran in Algeria.