ORION, BATAAN – The Coast Guard stopped a cruise ship from sailing off from the Port of Orion on Monday (July 2), allowing the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to rescue 139 alleged victims of human trafficking.

Lt. Carlos V. Carlos, Bataan Coast Guard commander, said the 139 Filipinos were on board the ship, “Forever Lucky,” which was headed for Micronesia.

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NBI agents began investigating the passengers on Tuesday, and confirmed that the Filipinos were illegally recruited for jobs in Guam.

The ship was initially delayed for failing to produce the proper travel documents, Carlos said.

It had been anchored at the port for a month, and was reportedly leased by a job recruiter in Olongapo City, Carlos said. The alleged recruiter, Johnny Cabrera, will be charged with illegal recruitment by the NBI in Manila.

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MOST READ </s> JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s navy has seized a fishing boat carrying 20 crewmembers, including 14 Indonesians believed to be trafficking victims who were forced to work for years without pay, officials said Monday.

Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said a navy ship intercepted the STS-50 about 60 miles (95 kilometres) from Weh Island in Aceh province last Friday, a day after a tip from Interpol saying the vessel was heading to Indonesian waters.

Pudjiastuti said the boat was carrying six Russians, including the captain, and 14 Indonesians.

“The STS-50 has allegedly committed an organized transnational crime,” Pudjiastuti said.

She said the boat is believed to have falsified its identity many times and used the flags of eight different countries, including Japan, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and Micronesia, to facilitate illegal fishing in the waters of many nations.

The boat had earlier been seized by China but managed to escape, and was later captured in Mozambique’s Port of Maputo before fleeing again, Pudjiastuti said.

Indonesian navy deputy chief Achmad Taufiqoerrochman said there are strong indications that the Indonesians on board are victims of trafficking who were forced to work at sea for years without pay.

“Suspicions of trafficking arose when we caught it without valid documents,” Taufiqoerrochman said. “We are still investigating this case comprehensively.”

He said the boat was equipped with 600 sets of gill nets, each about 50 metres (55 yards) long, that can sweep up to 30 square kilometres (12 square miles) of ocean. </s> The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship MV Phoenix sails out of Valletta’s Grand Harbour, Malta, May 2, 2015. ― Reuters picROME, April 23 — An Italian prosecutor claims charity boats rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean are in direct contact with people traffickers in Libya, reigniting a bitter row over what the aid groups defend as vital, life-saving operations.

In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa, Sicily-based prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro made his most specific claims yet over NGO activities off Libya, which the EU border agency Frontex recently described as tantamout to providing a “taxi” service to Europe.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the rescue effort include long-established groups such as Doctors without Borders and Save the Children, and smaller, newer operations such as the Malta-based MOAS.

They have all dismissed suggestions of de facto collusion with traffickers as a baseless slur on volunteer crews whose only mission is to save lives in the absence of EU governments acting effectively to do so.

Over 1,000 migrants are feared to have died in waters between Libya and Italy so far this year, according to the UN refugee agency. Nearly 37,000 have been rescued and brought to Italy.

“We have evidence that there are direct contacts between certain NGOs and people traffickers in Libya,” Zuccaro was quoted as saying by La Stampa.

“We do not yet know if and how we could use this evidence in court, but we are quite certain about what we say; telephone calls from Libya to certain NGOs, lamps that illuminate the route to these organisations’ boats, boats that suddenly turn off their (locating) transponders, are ascertained facts.”

Zuccaro is the head of a five-strong pool of prosecutors in charge of investigating all the legal aspects of the migrant crisis, from trafficking to illegal exploitation of migrant labour on Italian farms and rackets in the provision of reception facilities.

La Stampa reported that prosecutors were looking into whether some of the newly-established NGOs involved in rescue operations may be financed by the traffickers themselves as a way of making it easier to guarantee their human cargoes would get to Italy.

The organisations involved have all dismissed the charges against them and expressed concern that they are being targeted by an orchestrated smear campaign.

One group, SOS Mediterranee, told AFP last week it had “never, not once” been put in touch with a migrant boat via smugglers. — AFP </s> Two Filipino sailors have been rescued from a distressed South Korean freighter with 24 crew on board that had apparently sunk in the Atlantic Ocean, the Uruguayan navy said.

Four merchant ships in the area recovered three rafts, and rescued the two Filipino crew members on Saturday, said Gaston Jaunsolo, a spokesman for the navy.

The crew of the Stella Daisy, a Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC) with a capacity of more than 260,000 tonnes, comprised 16 Filipinos and eight Koreans.

The search for the others continued.

The ship had issued an emergency call on Friday shortly before noon (local time), saying it was taking on water, according to the navy.

Because the ship was far off the Uruguayan coast — some 3,700 kilometers, from Montevideo — the navy organised a search by four merchant ships in the area, Jaunsolo told AFP in Montevideo.

He said the first ships to reach the scene had detected a “strong smell of fuel” and spotted debris, “an indication that the damaged ship had sunk,” a statement from the navy said.

The ship, which is flagged in the Marshall Islands, had departed from a port in Brazil. Its intended destination was not immediately clear.

Brazil is sending an aircraft to assist in the search, officials said.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now </s> The Philippine coast guard pressed its search Tuesday for 18 missing Filipino crewmen from a cargo ship that sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten, which struck the country on Christmas Day, spoiling holiday celebrations in Asia's largest Catholic nation. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 14 other crewmen have been rescued and one died after the M/V Starlite Atlantic sank off Mabini town in Batangas province, where the powerful typhoon passed Monday on its way out of the country into the South China Sea.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Daily Journal. </s> Italian authorities have released a migrant-rescue boat that has been impounded for almost a month but are still investigating two of its crew on suspicion of enabling illegal immigration.



The Open Arms – which is operated by the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms and has rescued more than 5,000 people from the Mediterranean over the past three years – was seized on 19 March after it docked in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo with 218 migrants onboard.

Its crew had rescued them from a leaky raft off the coast of Libya and refused to hand them over to the Libyan coastguard, arguing that they were in international waters.

Despite reportedly being threatened with being shot, the captain of the Open Arms said he could not release them into Libyan custody because of the risk of abuse and human rights violations they could face in the North African country.

The vessel was impounded and three crew members placed under investigation. The chief prosecutor of Catania, Carmelo Zuccaro, has accused them of enabling illegal immigration by refusing to hand the migrants over to the Libyan coastguards.

On Monday, a judge ordered the Open Arms to be released. However, Prosecutors are still looking into whether its captain, Marc Reig, and the mission’s coordinator, Anabel Montes, should face trial on charges of enabling illegal immigration.

Riccardo Gatti, the head of the Open Arms mission, confirmed that the ship had been released but said it had been damaged by bad weather during its confiscation and would not be able to return to sea immediately.

“We are finally free and this is a first, important step,” he told the Guardian. “But the fight is still long. Our captain is still [facing charges] of enabling illegal immigration and the prosecutors in Catania are continuing with their investigations against NGOs, criminalising people who saves lives.”

Gatti said the ship’s condition meant the NGO would have to look for another vessel but was sending its sailing boat, the Astral, into the save-and-rescue zone to continue operations.

Prosecutors declined to comment, but have shelved investigations into allegations that the crew of the Open Arms was involved in “criminal association” and had been conspiring with smugglers in smuggle migrants to Europe.

The case comes amid growing concerns that NGOs are being criminalised for trying to save lives in the Mediterranean.

In August last year, Italian police seized a rescue ship operated by German NGO Jugend Rettet as part of an Italian attempt to end the migrant and refugee crisis.

Meanwhile, Helena Maleno, a Spanish journalist and human rights activist who is thought to have saved hundreds of lives by alerting maritime authorities to the plight of vulnerable migrants in the Mediterranean, has appeared in court in Morocco over allegations that she has been colluding with people traffickers.

Human Rights Watch has hit out at such draconian responses. “It is shocking that Europe has reached the point of criminalising rescue at sea,” it said in a statement last month.

“Europeans should support, not smear, people saving lives in the Mediterranean, and remember that EU and Italian policies are propping up a cycle of detention and violence in Libya, while groups like Proactiva are saving lives.”

According to figures from the International Organization for Migration, 16,847 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea so far this year and 557 people have died in the attempt. </s> The Philippine coast guard has pressed the search for 18 missing Filipino crewmen from a cargo ship that sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten, which spoiled Christmas celebrations in Asia's largest Catholic nation.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said Tuesday that 14 other crewmen have been rescued and one died after the M/V Starlite Atlantic sank off Mabini town in Batangas province, where the powerful typhoon passed Monday on its way out of the country into the South China Sea.

At least seven people died from the typhoon, including the sunken ship's crewman and villagers who drowned from flooding or were pinned by fallen trees or a collapsed wall in Albay and Quezon provinces.

Nock-Ten forced more than 400,000 villagers to abandon their Christmas celebrations for emergency shelters. </s> MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine coast guard says gunmen attacked a Vietnamese ship off the Philippines' southern tip, killing a Vietnamese crewman and abducting six others.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said Monday the Vietnamese coast guard reported that the MV Giang Hai, with 17 crewmen, was attacked by pirates Sunday night about 20 miles (31 kilometers) north of Pearl Bank in southernmost Tawi-Tawi province.

Rescuers from the coast guard and marines found the ship had drifted near the province's Baguan Island, with 10 Vietnamese crewmen alive and one dead. The cargo vessel's owner said the ship's captain was among those abducted.

Balilo said pursuit operations are underway, but the abducted crewmen's location and the attackers' identity remain unknown.

Abu Sayyaf militants are suspected of being behind previous sea assaults in the area. </s> MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Gunmen attacked a Vietnamese cargo ship off the Philippines' southern tip, killing a Vietnamese crewman and abducting six others including the vessel's captain, the Philippine coast guard and the ship's owner said Monday.



Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the Vietnamese coast guard reported that the MV Giang Hai, with 17 crewmen on board, was attacked by pirates Sunday night about 20 miles (31 kilometers) north of Pearl Bank in Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines' southernmost province.



Personnel of the Philippine coast guard, police and marines found the ship had drifted near the province's Baguan Island. Upon boarding the vessel, they found 10 Vietnamese sailors alive and one dead.



Pham Van Hien, head of the safety department of Pham Hai shipping company, the owner of the cargo ship based in Vietnam's northern port city of Hai Phong, said the captain was among those abducted. The attack occurred while the vessel was transporting 4,500 tons of cement from Indonesia to the Philippines, he said.



The gunmen destroyed some of the ship's equipment, but the 10 remaining crew members managed to sail the ship, Hien said.



He said the company had informed the IMB Piracy Reporting Center in Malaysia to seek its help in securing the return of the kidnapped crew members.



Balilo said pursuit operations are underway, but the location of the abducted crewmen and the identity of the attackers remain unknown.



Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen are suspected of being behind previous sea assaults in the area, including an attack last November on another Vietnamese cargo ship whose captain and five crewmen were also kidnapped. They are believed to be held by the militants in the southern province of Sulu, where the kidnappers are holding at least 20 foreign and local hostages in different jungle locations.



An Abu Sayyaf commander known as Albhasy Misaya has been suspected of leading the kidnapping of the Vietnamese crewmen last year, but the military has not monitored any sign so far indicating the Vietnamese abducted late Sunday were also targeted by the Sulu-based militants.



Ransom kidnappings of Malaysian, Indonesian and Vietnamese crewmen have continued despite heightened coastal and border security.



___



Associated Press writer Tran Van Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.
The Bataan Coast Guard detains cruise ship MV Forever Lucky on suspicion of involvement in human trafficking. The National Bureau of Investigation rescues 139 alleged victims from the vessel and charges Johnny Cabrera, the alleged lessor of the ship.