MAX HAMATA, Windhoek | Monday
IMMIGRATION officials at Luderitz have discovered four stowaways from Congo-Brazzaville who were dumped off the Namibian coast about 200 kilometres from Luderitz just over a week ago.
Officials in Luderitz told The Namibian that the four youths aged 21, 16, 17 and 14 were discovered after an aircraft flying from Walvis Bay to Luderitz spotted them and informed immigration officials.
Senior Immigration officer Hosea Hangula said yesterday that the four survived the sea but the bodies of two others are still missing.
He said it appeared as if the captain of a Congolese fishing vessel, en-route to France, had ordered the six men to be dumped overboard.
“They hid in the vessel and wanted to sail through to France to seek political asylum because of the political situation in their country,” said Hangula.
The four survivors, whose names are unknown, had spent four days on the vessel when the captain found them. The captain lowered a raft from the vessel and all six were asked to climb onto it. Two refused to get onto the raft and were dumped into the sea.
The four managed to reach Spencer Bay, north of Luderitz, and had already walked about 100 kilometres when a helicopter was dispatched to collect them.
They are now in police custody and are now awaiting a decision by the Immigration Tribunal Board.
Hangula said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been informed. UNHCR officials are expected to interview the four this week.
Hangula said immigration authorities had discovered another group of nine stowaways from Sierra Leone and Congo Brazzaville on November 22 last year who were dumped off the Namibian coast by a Chinese cargo vessel.
The nine were originally 11 but two drowned when they were dumped into the sea.
He said the 11 were bound for Australia after they had agreed with the captain of the vessel to pay $160 for the trip. But the captain reneged on the agreement and dumped them into the sea.
“We don’t know why all these vessels decide to dump their people in Namibian waters but this is a serious concern to us,” he added.
He said Namibia’s immigration authorities were seeking to charge the vessels’ captains because they had contravened international law which prohibits dumping people in the sea.
“They should have just handed them over to us without inflicting cruelty to human beings,” he added.
The men are in police custody in Luderitz. – The Namibian