According to Brazilian authorities, four stowaways on a boat from Nigeria have been rescued off the coast of Brazil after spending 13 days at sea at the helm of a cargo ship.
“Four stowaways were hidden in a compartment above the rudder,” the Federal Police (PF) said in a statement following Monday’s rescue operation near the coast of Espirito Santo state (southeast).
Extremely precarious conditions
Footage released by the PF shows men sitting on the rudder, the part of the rudder that is under the hull and can sometimes be submerged, in extremely precarious conditions for a nearly two-week voyage across the Atlantic. “They were located by members of the crew of the Liberian-flagged ship that left Lagos on June 27,” the Brazilian police said.
A police source told AFP on Tuesday that the stowaways were “in good health” and “well fed.” “They remain under the responsibility of the Maritime Agency until they are returned to their country of origin,” the PF said in its press release. A similar episode occurred last November when three illegal immigrants from Lagos arrived in Spain at the helm of a freighter in the Canary Islands after an 11-day journey.