Rubber Dinghies News

Greenpeace protested against deep-sea mining in the Pacific on Monday, with the environmental organization’s Rainbow Warrior boat trailing a ship doing research for DeepGreen, a company which plans to mine the seabed for battery metals.Greenpeace activists were pictured in rubber dinghies holding banners reading “Stop Deep Sea Mining!”, with the Maersk Launcher, a ship chartered by DeepGreen, in the background.The protest took place 900 nautical miles (1,036 miles) off Mexico’s western coast…

Britain and France signed a new agreement to try to stop illegal migration across the Channel on Saturday, upping patrols and technology in the hope of closing off a dangerous route used by migrants to try to reach the UK on small boats.UK interior minister Priti Patel said that under the deal, the number of officers patrolling French beaches would double, and new equipment including drones and radar would be employed.This year, hundreds of people, including some children, have…

British special forces stormed a Greek-operated oil tanker in the English channel on Sunday to wrestle control of the vessel from seven stowaways who had threatened the crew in a suspected hijacking.Troops from the Special Boat Service, a navy special forces unit whose headquarters in just a few miles away from where the vessel began showing signs of distress, boarded the Nave Andromeda near the Isle of Wight off southern England.Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel authorized the armed forces to board the ship “to safeguard life and secure a ship that was subject to suspected hijacking”, the defense ministry said.“Armed forces have gained control of the ship and seven individuals have been detained,” the ministry said.

Unsafe mixed migration by sea continues to claim many lives, despite the strenuous efforts made by Governmental and naval rescue services, often supported by merchant vessels, abiding by the long-standing tradition and legal obligation to go to the rescue of persons in distress at sea. The complexities of this humanitarian challenge were discussed on Monday (30 October) at a meeting hosted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), bringing together representatives of UN agencies, the maritime industry and European Union naval forces. For the rescued and seafarers alike, the experience can be harrowing. A modern merchant vessel is unsuited to carrying large numbers of survivors…

A Spanish aid group operating in the Mediterranean said on Tuesday one of its boats had been barred by Italy and Malta from disembarking migrants rescued two days ago. Humanitarian groups have played a growing role in rescuing migrants who pay criminal gangs for passage from Libya, prompting accusations in Italy that they are facilitating people smuggling and encouraging migration. The groups deny this. It was not clear why the Golfo Azzurro, run by Barcelona-based Proactiva Open Arms, was not allowed to dock in Lampedusa. It is now in international waters. The Italian coastguard could not be reached for comment. "Golfo Azzurro rescued three people 100 miles from the Libyan coast in an (Italian) coastguard operation 48 hours ago and we are still without authorisation to disembark…

More than 5,000 migrants were saved on Tuesday and Wednesday off the Libyan coast and 28 bodies recovered, bringing the total number of people rescued this week to more than 11,000, Italy's coast guard said. More than 20 people were reported to have suffocated in the hold of one overloaded fishing boat, bringing the total death toll for Monday and Tuesday to 50. Italian officials said three women saved on Monday had given birth over the past 24 hours on a coast guard vessel that was bringing some 1,000 refugees to Sicily. The women and their three children were all reported to be in good health. The coast guard said the 4,655 migrants rescued on Tuesday were taken from 33 overcrowded boats…

Many bodies found in the hold of one ship. More than 4,650 migrants were saved on Tuesday off the Libyan coast and 28 bodies recovered, bringing the total number of people rescued in the last 48 hours to nearly 11,000, Italy's coast guard said on Wednesday. More than 20 people were reported to have suffocated in the hold of one overloaded fishing boat, bringing the total death toll for Monday and Tuesday to 50. Italian officials said three women saved on Monday had given birth over the past 24 hours on a coast guard vessel that was bringing some 1,000 refugees to Sicily. The women and their three children were all reported to be in good health.

Calmer seas and Libya's lawlessness have opened the way for smugglers to ship thousands of migrants across the Mediterranean this week, in a striking reminder of how far Europe is from ending the migrant crisis. In just four days, Italy's coastguard and European vessels pulled 13,000 migrants from packed wooden boats and rubber dinghies crossing from Libya's coast through the Strait of Sicily, one of the shortest routes from North Africa. Images from rescue vessels showed migrants crammed into fragile boats, some in orange life jackets, others jumping into the water to swim as rescuers shouted for them to stop. Many were women and children, most of them Subsaharan Africans.

ROME, July 5 (Reuters) - Some 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, Italy's coast guard said, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend. More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues. Arrivals are down from the same period of 2015, but the number of deaths on the perilous route has jumped. Ten women were found dead in the bottom of a rubber boat last week .

Italian vessels have helped rescue nearly 1,800 migrants from boats trying to reach Italy from north Africa in the last 24 hours, the navy said on Friday, indicating that numbers are rising as the weather warms up. The navy said 1,759 migrants were rescued in 10 operations involving the Italian navy, coastguard and finance police, the European Union's external borders agency Frontex and the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. The Italian frigate Grecale was taking the migrants to the Sicilian port of Augusta, where they were expected to arrive on Saturday morning, a navy statement said. It gave no details of their nationalities.

An estimated 113 people died in four shipwrecks between Libya and Italy at the weekend as the crossing becomes the preferred sea route for migrants to Europe, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. With the closing of land routes in the Balkans and a recent deal under which Greece sends migrants back to Turkey, Italian officials have said they expect more people to try to make this longer and much more dangerous crossing from Libya. In one of four incidents, an Italian merchant ship rescued 26 people off the coast of Libya in rough seas and others were feared missing, Italy's Coast Guard said on Saturday.

At least 12 people believed to be Syrian refugees drowned as two boats sank after leaving southwest Turkey for the Greek island of Kos on Wednesday, a senior Turkish naval official said. The two boats, carrying a total of 23 people, had set off separately from the Akyarlar area of the Bodrum peninsula. The confirmed dead included five children and one woman. Seven people were rescued and two reached the shore in lifejackets. The official said hopes were fading of saving the two people still missing. Television images showed the lifeless body of a small boy dressed in a red t-shirt and blue shorts lying face-down on the sand in Bodrum, one of Turkey's most popular beach resorts.

Ships patrolling the Mediterranean have plucked more than 3,700 migrants from overcrowded and unsafe boats in the last two days, Italy's coastguard said on Tuesday. Ships from several countries, including those taking part in a European Union mission called "Triton", went to the aid of 18 different boats carrying 2,741 migrants on Monday, a spokeswoman said. Around a thousand more migrants were saved in six rescue operations on Tuesday, the coastguard said in a statement. They had been travelling in a fishing boat and five rubber dinghies. Separately, almost 300 other migrants rescued two days ago arrived in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo aboard a ship run by Doctors Without Borders. Authorities also brought ashore a corpse in a metal coffin.

The MS EUROPA 5-star-plus luxury cruise liner from the Hapag Lloyd Kreuzfahrten GmbH is expected to arrive at the dock of the Blohm + Voss Repair GmbH on 31 August 2004. Extensive modernisation will be carried out on the 198.6 metre long, 24 metre wide cruise liner by 14 September 2004. The MS EUROPA is the flagship of Hapag Lloyd’s fleet of cruise liners and offers the utmost in comfort for up to 408 passengers. Modernization works include the installation of a new fitness room…

Earlier this year, the Black Prince of the Fred. Olsen Cruises Line shipping company docked into Dock 10 of Blohm + Voss Repair GmbH. The cruise liner was originally constructed in such a way that it was able to be employed on the one hand as a passenger liner and cargo ship, and on the other as a passenger and car ferry. The Black Prince was converted into a pure passenger liner in 1986. A maximum of 451 passengers can go on a cruise in the 241 cabins of the Black Prince. The last full renovation took place in 1999. The 464.6 x 66.5 ft. (141.6 x 20.3 m) ship, with a draft of 21 ft. (6.4 m) is now receiving a new crankshaft on the port side at Blohm + Voss Repair. Moreover, some paint work has to be carried out in addition to retouch work on the engine plant.