Refugee ship docks at Lagos port

A Swedish registered ship with an estimated 186 Liberians on board has arrived in the Nigerian port of Lagos and was awaiting final clearance to berth, UN and port officials said on Monday. The MV Alnar Stockholm left Monrovia on 1 June with passengers thought to be mostly refugees fleeing the latest fighting in Liberia. It was denied entry by the authorities in Ghana, Togo and Benin but Nigeria said last week it would receive the ship on humanitarian grounds. The French news agency said Lagos port officials, the Internal Affairs Ministry and health workers were on Monday coordinating efforts to receive the ship, and that the port’s largest berth had already been cleared for the passengers to disembark once final clearance was given by the presidency. “We are waiting to have access to the passengers in order to determine if they are indeed refugees or not,” an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN. The Swedish captain of the ship, Henning Kielberg, was reported by news organisations as saying that he was not carrying refugees but normal passengers who had paid their fare and had the required documentation.