The Ezadeen is an animal transport ship flying the Sierra Leone flag that made headlines after it drifted in the Ionian Sea off the Italian coast in early January 2015 with several hundred mostly Syrian refugees , but without a crew . It was brought to Corigliano Calabro by an Icelandic tug on the evening of January 2nd .
The use of the Ezadeen and the refugee ships Baris , Sandy and Blue Sky M , which had previously been introduced under comparable circumstances, led to an extensive debate about new methods of flight and refugee policy in the Mediterranean.
The coaster was built in 1966 as hull number 1310 at the ship and boat yard Gebr. Schürenstedt in Bardenfleth . The client of the ship launched on May 5, 1966 was Otto Eckhardt from Elsfleth. After the handover on June 2, 1966, the Kümo was initially operated under the name Tantzen and renamed Antares I in 1967 . In 1971 the freighter was sold to the Cybas 1 Partnership in Famagusta and renamed Danesea . After a transfer to the Cybas Shipping Company in Famagusta, another sale followed in 1974 to J. & D. Damhof in Delfzijl , who used the ship as Antares . A year later there was another transfer to J. & D. Damhof (NV Scheepvaart Bedrijf "Poseidon") in Delfzijl and in 1979 to J. Damhof (BV Scheepvaart Bedrijf "Poseidon") in Delfzijl. About ten years later, in March 1988, AR Osman from Latakia acquired the ship and renamed it Osman . A year later, the Osman sold to the resident also in Latakia OAR Ismail, of the coaster first as Al Haj Ossman and from 2003 Joudi S operation. In 2009 the ship was resold within Latakia to Razak Jamal & Suleiman and continued to operate without renaming. In 2010, YM Lebbadi from Freetown in Sierra Leone bought the ship, which was then renamed Ezadeen and converted into a cattle truck. In 2012 it was transferred to Trade & Marine Service (Uni Marine Management) in Freetown.
As a refugee ship
From December 2014 to January 2015, the ship was officially on a voyage to Sète in the south of France . However, it was on behalf of people smugglers on the way from Syria via Famagusta to the Italian coast. The Ezadeen had been abandoned by its crew in the Adriatic and was drifting around 150 kilometers off the southern Italian coast on January 1, when the refugees on board attracted the attention of the Italian coast guard. Later, the ship from which it was patrol boat Thyr the Icelandic Coast Guard , which as part of Operation Triton European border agency Frontex was in the region in use, in the southern Italian port Corigliano Calabro (district Schiavonea introduced), where the refugees erstversorgt and later in other parts of the country were spent.
