Swedish coast guard boards suspected stateless ship in the Baltic Sea

March 6 (Reuters) - The Swedish ‌coast guard ​said ​it boarded and took control of a suspected stateless vessel in Swedish waters of the Baltic ‌Sea on Friday, and it was carrying out ⁠investigations on the ship.

"At 3:50 p.m. today, the Coast Guard took ‌control of a vessel with ‌unclear flag status and thus suspected of being a stateless vessel," it said in a statement, adding that ​the boarding had taken place off the coast of the southern Swedish town Trelleborg.

The ship Caffa was sailing ⁠under a Guinean flag, but the coast guard said it regarded the vessel ​to be stateless "based on national and international legislation". Swedish police said the ship was suspected of ​sailing under a false flag.

According ‌to ship-tracking service Marine Traffic, Caffa is a 96-meter general cargo ship.

Sweden's minister for civil ⁠defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in a post on X that the ship was a freighter on Ukraine's sanctions list.

"The ownership structure ⁠is unclear and there are suspicions that the vessel is not ​insured. As recently as this summer, the ship is said to have changed from a Russian to a Guinean flag," Bohlin wrote.

The coast ‌guard said it had launched a preliminary investigation into suspected violation of maritime law ‌regarding lack of seaworthiness.

"The Coast Guard has personnel on board to ⁠gather information about the ‌condition of the vessel ​and crew, conduct searches, and conduct interviews," it added.

(Reporting by Greta Rosen Fondahn; Editing by Cynthia ‌Osterman)

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