Incidents and Precautions
The West of England P&I Club has issued news alert on its website regaring the increase in stowaways at Nigeria. Operators with vessels at or on passage to Lagos are advised to ensure that the crew is alerted to this increasing risk as follows:
Care should be taken to ensure that all spaces are inspected just prior to departure as part of a thorough stowaway search performed in accordance with the vessel’s Safety Management System and/or Ship Security Plan procedures. If it is possible to enter the rudder compartment from within the ship, the manhole cover should be removed during the search to check that no one is inside. A further search should be carried out shortly after departure as once a vessel is underway stowaways often emerge from their hiding places to find food or water or a more comfortable place to conceal themselves, there have also been cases of stowaways boarding vessels once they are underway.
During the stowaway search all padlocks and locked spaces should be checked. This process may be speeded up by applying plastic seals to such compartments prior to arrival or in port after verifying that they are empty, examining the integrity of the seals thereafter.
If stowaways are found on board before a vessel leaves port, it should be relatively straightforward to hand them over to the local authorities at minimal cost. However, if stowaways are discovered after departure, heading back to the port of embarkation should be considered. Such action will often prove to be the most effective solution as repatriation costs from other countries may be considerable. Certain countries may not allow them to be landed at all. For this reason some companies have a policy of conducting a post-departure stowaway search while the vessel is still within the territorial waters of the country just visited.
In some of the above cases the stowaways concerned were disruptive or aggressive. However, no matter how difficult they may prove to be, stowaways should always be treated humanely.
View more information on the recent increase of Stowaways in Nigeria by clicking here
Source: The West of England P&I Club
