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IRGC Seizes Oil Tanker Over Alleged Fuel Smuggling

An oil tanker seized by Iran. Photo: IRNA news agency
An oil tanker seized by Iran. Photo: IRNA news agency
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IRGC Seizes Oil Tanker Over Alleged Fuel Smuggling

An oil tanker seized by Iran. Photo: IRNA news agency
An oil tanker seized by Iran. Photo: IRNA news agency

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it has seized a Togo-flagged oil tanker carrying more than 700,000 liters of fuel in the Gulf, the second such seizure in less than a week.

In a statement, the IRGC said the Togo-flagged “Pearl G” tanker with its nine crew members, who have Indian nationality, was seized by the forces of its Navy's third region on Friday morning following a judicial order.

“Pearl G, which is owned by an Iraqi national residing in the UAE, was offloading smuggled oil from Iranian vessels,” Tasnim reported, adding the vessel had been moved to the port of Bandar Imam Khomeini.

Last week, the IRGC seized another Togo-flagged tanker carrying 1,500 tons of marine gas oil.

British security firm Ambrey said last Monday the vessel had loaded marine gas oil off the coast of Iraq and was destined for UAE's Sharjah when it was intercepted on Sunday, 61 nautical miles southwest of Iran's port of Bushehr.

The Navy confirmed seizure in a statement quoted by Iran's state news agency, saying: “The tanker was systematically engaged in fuel smuggling ... and was seized in the depths of Bushehr's coast by judicial order.”

“The vessel, along with its 12 crew members of Indian and Sri Lankan nationals, has been transferred to Bushehr anchorage and is under supervision,” it added.

Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel due to subsidies and the plunge in the value of its currency, has been fighting rampant smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to other states.

Ambrey said the incident had no political motives but was likely a counter-smuggling operation.

In late January, Iran seized a vessel with the flag of a country from Oceania carrying two million liters of allegedly smuggled fuel.
In May, Iran released seven crew members from a Portuguese-flagged container ship, seized on April 13, after accusing them of links to its arch-foe Israel.
Fuel prices in Iran are among the lowest globally, increasing the profitability of smuggling operations.

But experts previously said that Iran's circumvention of oil sanctions is among the main reasons for the worsening phenomenon of fuel smuggling.

Iran’s Nour News Agency said last December that fuel smuggling was estimated at 20 million liters per day, equivalent to $5 billion.

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Italy Sends Rejected Migrants to Detention Centers in Albania

Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE
Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE
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Italy Sends Rejected Migrants to Detention Centers in Albania

Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE
Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE

Italian authorities on Friday transferred 40 migrants with no permission to remain in the country to Italian-run migration detention centers in Albania.
It was the first time a European Union country sent rejected migrants to a nation outside the EU that is neither their own nor a country they had transited on their journey, migration experts said.
A military ship with the migrants departed the Italian port of Brindisi and arrived hours later in the Albanian port of Shengjin, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the capital, Tirana. The migrants were seen being transferred in buses and minivans under heavy security to an Italian-run center in Shengjin, where they will be processed before being transferred to a second center in Gjader, also run by Italian authorities.
The Italian government has not released their nationalities or further details, The Associated Press said.
Both facilities in Shengjin and in Gjader were originally built to process asylum requests of people intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea by Italy. But since their inauguration in October, Italian courts have stopped authorities from using them and small groups of migrants sent there have returned to Italy.
Italy’s far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni approved a decree last month that expanded the use of the Albanian fast-track asylum processing centers to include the detention of rejected asylum-seekers with deportation orders.
It is not clear how long the migrants may be held in Albania. In Italy they can be detained for up to 18 months pending deportation.
Meloni's novel approach to expel the migrants echoes US President Donald Trump’s recent deportations of migrants of various nationalities to Panama. It's also in line with a recent EU Commission proposal that, if passed, would allow EU members to set up so-called “return hubs” abroad.
Some experts and rights groups question the transfers Migration experts consulted by The Associated Press say it's unclear how legal Italy's actions were. Meghan Benton of the Migration Policy Institute said the move likely will be challenged in court. Speaking from Toulouse, France, Benton said other EU countries are interested in doing the same, including the Netherlands with Uganda.
Francesco Ferri, a migration expert with ActionAid, who was among a group of nongovernmental organizations and Italian lawmakers visiting Albania to follow the migrant transfer, said Italian authorities have failed to clarify what happens to the migrants once they're in Albania. He said there is no legislation in Italian law, nor in EU law, nor in the Albania-Italy agreement that would allow rejected asylum-seekers to be deported directly from Albania, making the purpose of the transfer unclear.
“For us it is unacceptable,” Ferri said.
The Albanian centers opened in October but they remained substantially inactive due to legal hurdles and wide opposition from human rights associations, which believe they violate international laws and put migrants’ rights at risk.
The November 2023 agreement between Italy and Albania— worth nearly 800 million euros over five years — allows up to 3,000 migrants intercepted by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month to be sheltered in Albania and vetted for possible asylum in Italy or repatriation.
Italy has agreed to welcome those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.
The first three groups of 73 migrants transferred there in October, November and January spent only a few hours in Albania and were returned to Italy after Italian magistrates refused to validate their detention in the non-EU country.
So far this year, 11,438 migrants landed on Italian shores, less than the 16,090 who arrived in the same period last year. Most arrived from Bangladesh, followed by Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. Irregular border crossings were 31% lower across the European Union according to figures released Friday by the EU's Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. ____
Semini reported from Tirana, Albania and Brito from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press journalists Colleen Barry, Giada Zampano and Paolo Santalucia in Rome contributed to this report.