The Comoros Islands have begun to combat the ‘shadow fleet’

This was reported by Splash247, according to Ukrinform.

According to the Equasis database, 62 tankers, three liquefied gas carriers and one tugboat have been identified as illegally flying the Comoros flag. According to the Israeli maritime analytics company Windward, as of 14 September, all but one of the ships illegally flying the Comoros flag and trading with russia, Iran or Venezuela were subject to sanctions by the US, EU or UK.

A Windward study conducted in August showed that 38% of the sanctioned tonnage of the ‘shadow fleet’ sailed under the Comoros flag, followed by Gambia, Cameroon and Sierra Leone. 57% of the sanctioned tonnage was under a false flag or the flag was unknown.

According to Clarksons Research, as of 1 August this year, the Comoros ranks 25th in the world in terms of ship registry size, with 615 vessels, and its registered fleet has grown by 274% this year.

In July, the European Union and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Intershipping Services, a UAE-based company that manages the Comoros and Gabon flag registries, another African flag closely associated with the transport of russian oil.

Both Gabon and the Comoros have long been the focus of regulatory attention. In particular, the Comoros has become synonymous with risky behaviour at sea. It is blacklisted by the Paris Memorandum of Understanding, has a red flag from the US Coast Guard and, according to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), is consistently at the top of the list of crew abandonment cases.

Windward has identified 12 more flags used by the ‘shadow fleet’. These are Angola, Aruba, Benin, Curaçao, Eswatini, Guinea, Guyana, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Saint Martin and Timor-Leste.

Source: Ukrinform, Splash247