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On Oct 17, the CCS Tenerife of Salvamento Marítimo was notified of a cayuco near the Caleta area with 57 sub-Saharan people on board. The 'Salvamar Alpheratz' accompanied the boat the port of Los Cristinos. Report with photo: https://x.com/salvamentogob/status/1846851532156715475

A French court has acquitted the captain of the 'Baltic Leader', who was accused of violating EU sanctions in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when he left the port of Rouen. He was cleared by the Rouen Criminal Court on Oct 10, 2024, after facing charges and having his ship confiscated by French authorities. The prosecution had sought a €16 million fine and a 10-month suspended prison sentence, arguing that the vessel was owned by PSB Leasing, a Russian company under sanctions. At the centre of the case was the question of the ship’s ownership at the time of its interception. Prosecutors contended that the vessel remained under the control of PSB Leasing, a subsidiary of the Russian state-linked Promsvyazbank, which had been targeted by European sanctions. However, the captain’s defence had argued the vessel had already been sold to another company, the TransMorFlot, just days before the war in Ukraine broke out. The court’s ruling followed a similar decision by the Douai Court of Appeal in Dec 2022, which had ordered the release of the ship, determining that TransMorFlot had taken ownership on Feb 16, 2022, nine days before the 'Baltic Leader' was seized.

On Oct 17, 2024, the "Ludwigshafen am Rhein", which has been deployed as part of the UN UNIFIL force off the Lebanese coast, fended off an incoming drone amid growing tensions in the region. The unmanned aircraft was brought down in a controlled manner off the coast of Lebanon using a defense system.

During an inspection of the"Aura Seaways" after its arrival from Klaipeda on Oct 15, 2024, the federal police in Kiel arrested a 45-year-old Latvian. He was wanted on an arrest warrant from Berlin because he had been convicted of forgery. As the 45-year-old could not pay the 1500 euros demanded to avoid a prison sentence, he was taken to a correctional facility. During the inspection, the man presented his passport and a Latvian driver's license. The officers recognized features that indicated a forgery, the police said. A check in the European registration system for driver's licenses revealed that the man did not actually have a valid Latvian driver's license. He then admitted to having bought the fake driver's license in Riga. In addition to being in prison, he now faces criminal charges for forgery.

A group of activists protested on Oct 16 as the 'Libra', carrying migrants intercepted in international waters' arrived in the port of Shengjin, one of the two centres Italy opened in Albania, under Rome's jurisdiction, where it plans to process thousands of asylum-seekers outside its borders. The first centre, an area in Shengjin, 66 kilometres northwest of the capital, Tirana, is used for screening newcomers, while the other centre, about 22 kilometres to its east near the former military airport in Gjader, accommodates migrants during the processing of their asylum requests. The protesters displayed a banner that read, “The European dream ends here." The protesters stated that the deal was against human rights. Such a deal has not been democratic because the peoples of both countries have not been asked. The ship had brought the first group of 16 male migrants, 10 from Bangladesh and six from Egypt, who were rescued at sea after departing from Libya. Report with photo and video: https://www.msn.com/en-xl/africa/top-stories/activists-protest-as-first-group-of-16-migrants-on-italian-ship-arrive-in-albania/ar-AA1sosPY