Police raid Tongan ship

5 al-Qaida suspects held in Italy

Flag used by Australian shippers now the centre of another terrorist controversy

Italian police arrested 15 Pakistanis suspected of belonging to al-Qaida, the British Guardian reported in September.

The suspects were intercepted in Italian waters on board a Tongan registered cargo ship on August 5.

The Tongan flag has been at the centre of a dispute surrounding the flagging out of the former Australian registered vessel Wallarah.

At the time the Maritime Union warned that the Tongan flag had fallen into ill repute and was a security risk.

Tongan flagged vessels have also recently been involved in people smuggling and gun running.

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said this latest incident involving the Tongan flag proved that the union concerns were well founded and further exposed teh hypicricfy of the governmetns border control policy.

According to the European press, the suspects were detained after their Romanian-owned ship was escorted into the Sicilian port of Gela by police and coastguard patrol boats and charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and subversion.

"The captain reportedly told investigators that he had been instructed always to remain in international waters," the Guardian reported.

Meanwhile General Secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation David Cockroft told Lloyds List daily he suspected that the security concerns surrounding flag of convenience shipping would finally lead to the system being outlawed.