THE Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on Malta to reconsider the terrorism charges it has brought against three migrant teenagers who were involved in commandeering a ship after it rescued them in the Mediterranean earlier this year. 

The accused, aged 15, 16 and 19, two from Guinea and one from the Ivory Coast, could face between seven and 30 years behind bars if found guilty of terrorist activity. 

The teens were rescued on March 28 along with over 100 other African refugees by the El Hiblu 1, a Turkish oil tanker off the coast of Libya. 

How the migrants took control of the ship remains contested.

Court testimony given by the ship’s chief engineer in April contradicted claims by the captain that the migrants threatened the crew with violence. 

What is clear is that the migrants grew restless on the morning after their rescue upon seeing the Libyan coastline, where the UN reports migrants face “systematic human rights violations... including unlawful killings, arbitrary detention, torture and inhuman detention conditions, alarming rates of malnutrition, sexual and gender-based violence including gang rape, slavery, forced labour and extortion.”

Hours after putting the El Hiblu 1 on a course towards Europe, the Maltese armed forces boarded the ship, restored control to its captain and rerouted it to Malta, where the migrants were handed over to the police. 

“While the circumstances around the captain’s decision to finally steer the ship to Malta are disputed, we are deeply concerned by the severity of the charges,” OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday evening.  

“In spite of the fact that two of them are minors, all three of the accused were held in the high-security division of an adult prison after they were reportedly interrogated by the authorities without being appointed legal guardians or placed in the care of independent child protection officials, responsible for ensuring their best interests.

“We have made our concerns clear to the Maltese authorities about the treatment of the three young migrants and what we believe to be exaggerated charges against them, and urged them to reconsider the charges.”