Representatives of environmental organizations from Malta, Italy, France, and Spain have issued a joint statement protesting the growing danger from shadow fleet tankers that they have been observing recently in the Mediterranean Sea. This is primarily about the practice of so-called oil transshipments, when ships, in order to hide the release of oil, transfer cargo between themselves right on the open sea.
This practice is extremely dangerous, as it is often carried out in violation of technical standards and threatens with significant emissions into the open sea. This can threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in coastal areas in the Mediterranean Sea.
Environmentalists are also concerned about the increasing accident rate of Russian shadow fleet tankers in the Mediterranean Sea, as the ships are very old and do not meet environmental standards, which is why oil emissions often occur from them.
Environmentalists advocate for increased control measures against oil ships in the Mediterranean Sea, in particular, conducting special law enforcement control missions, whose ships could inspect tankers directly on the high seas and, in case of violation of the rules, arrest the ship and confiscate the cargo.
