Ship captain awarded for rescuing migrants in distress

The captain and owner of Pinar E., the cargo ship at the centre of a diplomatic dispute between Malta and Italy earlier this year, will be given the Hope Refugee Award by the Turkish UN High Commission for Refugees.

The Commission's representative Michel Gaude said Captain Asik Tuygun and owner Baris Erdogdu would be given the award in recognition of the way they had saved more than 100 illegal immigrants who were about to drown at sea.

The standoff between the two neighbouring countries followed the Turkish cargo ship's rescue of 140 immigrants 40 miles off Lampedusa. Italy had argued that since the migrants were picked up in the search and rescue zone administered by Malta they should have been conveyed to the island. However, Malta insisted that, in terms of international law, they should have been taken to the nearest safe port, that is, Lampedusa. Italy eventually relented and accepted the migrants but the row continued for weeks until meetings between both sides and an assurance by the EU that it would help ease the situation.