Italian prosecutors say ‘hijackers’ on cargo ship were actually asylum seekers

Italian prosecutors say ‘hijackers’ on cargo ship were actually asylum seekers
Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo 14 Jun 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/14/italian-prosecutors-say-hi...

Group stormed by Italian special forces included a pregnant woman and two minors with hypothermia

A group of alleged hijackers on a cargo ship stormed by Italian special forces were in fact malnourished asylum seekers – including a pregnant woman and two minors suffering from hypothermia – who did not represent a threat and sneaked on to the vessel in the hope of reaching Europe, prosecutors in Naples have concluded.

Italy’s far-right defense minister Guido Crosetto announced on Saturday that the Italian authorities had deployed three military ships – from the coast guard and military police – dozens of special forces units and two helicopters to overpower a group of “pirates” who had attempted to hijack the Turkish vessel.

But sources in the prosecutor’s office say that Italian investigators have concluded that there had been no threat, no violence – and no hijacking.

Thirteen men and two women, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, furtively boarded the ship, named Galatea Seaway, which set off from Topçular in Turkey on 7 June and was headed for Sète in southern France.

According to the Italian government, the stowaways were discovered by the crew and allegedly tried to take some of the sailors hostage inside the bridge using knives.

Italy’s defense minister on Saturday claimed that the captain of the ship managed to radio for help, sending an urgent request to Ankara, which reported the incident to the Italian authorities, as the ship sailed 90 miles (150km) off the Italian coast.

Crosetto described the stowaways as “hijackers” and alleged that they were armed with “weapons like daggers”.

Prosecutors in Naples launched an investigation, but after questioning the asylum seekers and crew members, they concluded that the group of refugees did not represent a threat and refused to charge them with attempted hijacking.

The sources said the captain of the cargo ship had never said there was a risk of hijacking when he sent his request for help.

Questioned by the press and accused of having exaggerated the incident, Crosetto replied insisting that the Italian forces intervened according to standard protocol.

Three of the men were charged over the possession of knives, which they allegedly used to cut the tarpaulin of a truck in which they had hidden.

The two women, one of whom was pregnant, were taken to the hospital, while the men were moved to a refugee reception centre.

Every day, thousands of people are pushed to take ever more hazardous routes to avoid fierce violence from security forces in Balkan states and being stopped by the Libyan coastguard in the central Mediterranean.

In February, Bulgarian authorities found 18 people dead in an abandoned truck near the village of Lokorsko, 12 miles (20km) north-east of Sofia.

In 2020, seven north African men boarded a container in the Serbian town of Šid, hoping they would emerge a few days later in Milan. Their bodies were discovered on 23 October 2020, four months after they entered the metal box, in Asunción, the landlocked capital of Paraguay.

This article was amended on 15 June 2023 to clarify what the Italian authorities deployed when they stormed the cargo ship.