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Date Published: 17/05/2024

Cargo ship full of arms refuses to dock in Spanish port of Cartagena

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The controversial ship anchored off the coast of Cartagena without stopping at port after another ship sending arms to Israel was prevented from docking this Thursday

Cargo ship full of arms refuses to dock in Spanish port of Cartagena

The cargo ship Borkum, which was carrying a shipment of military arms destined for the Czech Republic and which was due to call at Cartagena, has decided not to make its planned stop in the Spanish port this Thursday May 16 and will instead go directly to its next destination, Slovenia, to transfer its cargo from there to Prague, in the Czech Republic.

The owner of the cargo ship, a German company, has communicated this decision to the Maritime Captaincy, according to sources from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.

The ship was anchored at the cape of Cabo Tiñoso, in the waters of Cartagena (Murcia), while waiting to dock at the port of Escombreras in order to offload certain cargo destined for Granada, but finally decided not to stop and set course for Slovenia.

The Borkum had permission to make that call because its cargo was apparently not destined for Israel, something that the Spanish government has denied but which was questioned by pro-Palestinian organisations and had led the leftwing Sumar party to request that the Attorney General’s Office prevent it from docking in Cartagena.

Another leftwing Spanish political party, Podemos, requested that the Borkum be detained on its arrival at the port to check whether it was carrying weapons destined for Israel.

The owner of the German ship, which flies the flag of Antigua and Barbuda, decided not to stop despite having all its documentation in order. After anchoring off the coast of Cartagena, it is now heading to the Slovenian port from where it will later transfer its cargo to its stated final destination, the Czech Republic.

While this ship did have the corresponding permits, the Spanish government had refused permission to call another merchant ship on Thursday, the ‘Marianne Danica’, with a Danish flag, which sailed from India and is carrying engines for military rockets destined for Israel.

Under the 2014 ministerial order regulating the integrated procedure for ships calling at ports of general interest, it is up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whether or not to grant such authorisation to dock.

Podemos’s candidate for the European elections, Irene Montero, posted on X asking the government to “stop criminalising and ridiculing the Palestine solidarity movement” and to “act to stop the genocide.”

The spokesperson for Sumar in the Spanish Congress, Íñigo Errejón, added, “Social pressure is working, standing up is working.”

Image: Port of Escombreras / Ayuntamiento de Cartagena

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