BACKGROUND
CONFIDENTIAL
A.
First Port of Call
It has long been accepted internationally that persons
rescued at sea are accepted automatically for temporary
landing at least by the country of the next port of
call which is identifiable from the ship's manifest
and port clearance papers. The scale of the current
refugee problem has meant that this practice has been
breached either by complete refusal to accept refugees
(eg China and Taiwan) or refusal to accept them unless
the flag state gives an undertaking, usually in writing,
to accept for resettlement any refugees whom UNHCR is
unable to resettle elsewhere within a specified time,
usually three months (eg Singapore and Japan). This
has meant lengthy delays for ships which have picked
up refugees while efforts are made to persuade the
country concerned to change its policy and then for us
to decide whether or not to accept the refugees and
give the necessary guarantee.. For instance the
"Roachbank" affair took a month to solve at an
estimated cost to the shipowner while off hire of
£7000 per day. Other vessels known to have suffered similarly are the Wellpark, 'Sibonga, and Ashford. two instances (both involving Taiwan) UNHCR incurred
higher transport costs than normal through the need
to charter aircraft to transport the refugees to the
UK.
In
Hill. have now exprienced Prevvatini about being
While it will be generally useful to encourage continued are to continue
acceptance of the first port of call principle, certainly
outside the present situation, the United Kingdom is in a diffecent position because it is virtually alone
in refusing to give guarantees straightaway. In the
case of the Ashford we were almost embarrassed by having
the Dutch step in ahead of us. (Ashford's UK owners
have a Dutch parent company.) It is known that UK
registered ships are now routing away from the problem
area where possible in order to a oid the heavy
penalties of meeting their obligions under UK Law
and the relevant
nventions (Br ssels
international
CFIDENTIAL
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