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By Philip Nwosu
Stowaways have long been a hidden issue in global maritime trade, posing significant challenges to port authorities, shipping companies and national security. Nigeria, with its extensive coastline and bustling ports, has not been immune to this problem.
The Nigerian waters have seen a surge in stowaway incidents in recent years, raising alarms among maritime stakeholders. The Nigerian Navy has been at the forefront of efforts to stem this tide, implementing a range of measures aimed at curbing the menace and ensuring the safety of maritime operations.
Nigerian Navy operatives have spread their dragnet around the waters of the country, seeking stowaways and others violating the country’s maritime laws, making the maritime environment uncomfortable and unsafe for legitimate users. At the last count, many stowaways and persons trafficking in humans, especially girls, have been caught in these dragnets as the service counts the gains from these efforts.
The Nigerian Navy (NN) recently stated that it had arrested a total of 75 young persons attempting to travel out of the country through “criminal and unconventional ways” of hiding under the rudder of cargo ships sailing out of the nation’s waters. The navy decried the menace and warned youths of the dangers of attempting to travel as stowaways, which include severe legal consequences and significant health risks such as exposure to harsh weather conditions, lack of food and water, injuries, and even death.
Director of Naval Information, Commodore Aiwuyor Adams-Aliu, said: “Migration as a stowaway is illegal, dangerous, and is considered a security threat to shipowners.” He added that the navy is concerned about the upsurge in stowaways in Nigerian waters.
He explained that the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL Convention) defines a stowaway as someone who is secreted on a ship or in cargo without the consent of the shipowners, the master or any other responsible person.
He noted that between August 2023 and April 2024, no fewer than 75 stowaways had been apprehended, emphasizing that the arrests were in line with the strategic directive of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, which enabled the deployment of advanced Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) equipment to direct Quick Response Teams (QRT) to all parts of Nigeria’s territorial waters.
The naval spokesman said that during the operations, the QRT carefully extracted the stowaways who had concealed themselves inside the rudder compartments of the vessels.
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Indeed, stowaways take big risks, according to the NN, but the stowaways themselves do not see it as a risk, especially given the story of four Nigerian stowaways who had hidden at the rudder of a ship and traveled to Brazil. These stowaways survived a 14-day expedition living in the rudder of a merchant ship, drinking seawater and their own urine after running out of food and drink.
The men said they had hoped to arrive in Europe but were shocked to learn they had landed in Brazil. Two of the men have since been returned to Nigeria upon their request, while the other two, identified as Yeye and Roman Ebimene Friday, a 35-year-old from Bayelsa State, have applied for asylum in Brazil.
Friday said: “I pray the government of Brazil will have pity on me.” He told the media in Brazil that he had attempted to flee Nigeria by ship once but was arrested by the Nigerian Navy, and that this attempt that saw him in Brazil was his second.
They blamed economic hardship, political instability and crime as some of the factors that had left them with little or no option but to abandon Nigeria in search of greener pastures. His counterpart, Yeye, who claimed to be a Pentecostal minister from Lagos State, said his peanut and palm oil farm was destroyed by floods in 2023, leaving him and his family homeless. He hopes they can now join him in Brazil.
Friday said his journey to Brazil began on June 27, when a fisherman friend rowed him up to the stern of the Liberian-flagged Ken Wave, docked in Lagos, and left him by the rudder. To his surprise, he found three men already there, waiting for the ship to depart. Friday said he was terrified. He had never met his new shipmates and feared they could toss him into the sea at any moment.
Once the ship set sail, Friday said, they made every effort not to be discovered by the ship’s crew, whom they also worried might offer them watery graves. “Maybe if they catch you they will throw you in the water,” he said. “So we counseled ourselves never to make a noise.”
Spending two weeks so close to the Atlantic Ocean was dangerous, the migrants said. To prevent themselves from skidding off and getting drowned, Friday said they rigged up a net around the rudder and tied themselves to it with a rope. He said: “When I looked down, I could see big fishes like whales and sharks. Due to the cramped conditions and the noise of the engine, sleep was rare and risky. I was very happy when we got rescued.”
Despite the chilling stories told by Friday and Yeye, it has not stopped stowaways from continuing to seek that route to Europe.
On July 13, 2024, the Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft patrol team arrested eight more suspected stowaways in two speedboats attempting to board a merchant ship, MV Northern Light, while underway along the Lagos Channel. According to the naval spokesman in a statement, the incident occurred when the patrol team from NNS Beecroft sighted the suspects attempting to board the vessel through its rudder compartment. Upon interrogation, five of the suspects admitted that they attempted to board the vessel to enable them to travel abroad. The suspects and speedboats have been handed over to the Nigerian Immigration Service, Lagos State Port and Marine Command, for further investigation.
This year 2024 alone, the NN said 33 persons attempting to travel to Europe through unusual means have been arrested. In 2021, the NNS Beecroft arrested 97 suspected stowaways onboard different foreign merchant ships that were in the country to discharge cargos in the last year. The suspects were about to travel illegally to different European countries before they were intercepted. Three of the suspects were arrested onboard MT SCF Alphine around the Lagos anchorage. The arrest, it was learned, was part of efforts by the Nigerian Navy to rid the nation’s maritime space of all illegalities, including human trafficking.
Security operatives said stowaways pose multiple threats to maritime security. They can inadvertently damage critical ship systems, disrupt operations and pose health and safety risks to the crew. Furthermore, the presence of stowaways can lead to significant financial losses for shipping companies, including fines, repatriation costs and delays in cargo delivery.
