NON-PROFIT group Human Rights at Sea has released its latest report, examining several scenarios where deprivation of liberty may occur onboard private ships.
It released the publication early to coincide with the case of the detention by UK Special Forces of seven stowaways onboard the crude oil tanker Nave Adromeda in UK territorial waters. They had sailed from Lagos, Nigeria on 5 October.
The new publication, Deprivation of Liberty Onboard Private Ships, should be read alongside the 2015 EU-funded Deprivation of Liberty at Sea, an international guide which remains applicable for shipmasters, crew and privately contracted armed security personnel.
The guidance introduces a typology of potential instances of deprivation of liberty onboard private ships. Whether a specific situation amounts to deprivation of liberty, and not to a mere restriction of liberty or even no restriction of movement at all, can only be assessed with regard to a specific case.
Generally, three elements must be present for a measure or situation to amount to a deprivation of liberty: space (confinement to a specific place or area), coercion (the person does not consent to be confined to that space) and time (the confinement in that space lasts for a certain time). These three elements are interdependent and must be assessed together.
The focus of the 2015 DoL guidance is on criminal suspects, who are deprived of their liberty by shipmasters, crew and/or privately contracted armed security personnel up until their handover to competent law enforcement officials for investigation and prosecution purposes. Among the scenarios highlighted is the detention of persons suspected of trafficking in human beings, or of engaging in an act of piracy.
The report can be accessed here.
