Ship's captain takes back four stowaways

The vessel Nordsun was yesterday expected to leave Malta in the early hours of this morning after its captain agreed to take four of the five stowaways who arrived in one of the containers it was carrying last Tuesday.

CMA CGM general manager Ronald Galea said yesterday that the ship, registered in Cyprus, was released and the four Algerians returning with the ship were locked up on the vessel yesterday morning. Algeria is the ship's next port of call and they would be dropped off there.

The other stowaway, who is claiming to be Iranian, is being held in Malta until a decision is taken about what should become of him.

The stowaways were kept at the Freeport for 36 hours before they were taken over by the police and detained at the police headquarters last Thursday.

They had been spotted getting out of a container stacked on another two and apprehended. But the captain had initially refused to take the stowaways back arguing that proof was needed to show that the men had been on board when the ship berthed at the Freeport.