UN agency picks 17 fraudulently registered “Botswana ships”
INNOCENT - Mbongeni Mguni | Saturday April 11, 2026 12:27
AFP, a leading news agency, using data from maritime monitor, MarineTraffic, reported that the ship, known as Hai Long 1, is Chinese-owned but flies under the Botswana flag. The ship was coming from Iran and was almost done transiting the contentious strait by Wednesday.
The Botswana flag or Botswana registration has been falsely flying from the sterns of at least 17 ships since the beginning of the year, according to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The IMO is a United Nations specialised agency responsible for the safety and security of global shipping. Botswana joined the organisation in October 2021.
According to the IMO, the Botswana registration flag is being flown on an increasing number of oceangoing tankers and gas carriers transporting cargo around the globe. Since the beginning of the year, Botswana has reportedly become a registration of choice for sanctioned ships operating in the “dark fleet”.
IMO has identified 529 vessels operating under false flags, with landlocked Botswana increasingly popular. Analysts believe the growing popularity is due to Botswana’s stellar global reputation and its balanced foreign affairs stance, which allows a ship flying its flag to move freely, even with the conflict raging in the Middle East. Analysts also believe the fraudsters are taking advantage of the general ignorance of the issue within government.
“Fraudulent registration and related unlawful practices include the registration of vessels without the knowledge or approval of the relevant national maritime administration,” the IMO said. “Such fraudulent registrations are accomplished through a combination of tactics that may include the submission of fraudulent documentation to IMO, without the knowledge of the cognisant flag State authority, in order to obtain IMO documentation and ship identification numbers. “Fraudulent registration companies may operate with authentic‑looking websites and claim to be the official registration offices authorised to grant to ships the nationality of the State concerned.”
Fraudsters may also broadcast falsified Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, which involves the intentional manipulation of AIS data to materially alter the ship's identifying information or to reflect the AIS data of an entirely different vessel.
According to the IMO, the 17 vessels associated with Botswana broadcast AIS details linked to Botswana, despite Botswana not operating a ship registry. One of those ships reportedly arrived at Alang, India, on Tuesday, according to the TradeWinds website.
Mmegi research also shows another 333-metre crude oil carrier that departed from Qingdao in China on March 9 en route to the Gulf region. The ship, known as Skywave, is sailing under the flag of Botswana according to MarineTraffic.
Another 332-metre-long crude oil tanker, known as Virgo, was reported in the Gulf of Oman by yesterday afternoon, flying under the flag of Botswana. Like the Skywave, the ship also departed from China on March 31.
Mmegi enquiries to the Ministry for State President, Defence and Security, as well as the Ministry of International Relations, were yet to yield results as at Press time.
Botswana is, however, not the only African country affected by fraudulent actors using its flag. In Africa, another landlocked country, Malawi, discovered a fake Malawi Ship Registry, reported the fraud to INTERPOL, and saw its count of falsely flagged ships fall from 27 in September 2025 to eight as of the latest report.
The Gambia carried out a registry cleanse that removed 72 ships and imposed a moratorium on new registrations after discovering forged certificates. Other submissions revealed fraudulent crew‑boat certificates linked to Mali (17 false Mali flags), and a discredited claim that an Alfa Register of Shipping had been authorised by Guinea, which the government denied – 39 ships were found flying a false Guinea flag.
Zimbabwe also recently had to write a letter to the IMO clarifying a fraudulent registration.
“The Government of Zimbabwe categorically disassociates itself from the purported entity known as the ‘Registrar of Ships, Zimbabwe Maritime Authority’. “There is no such organisation as a ‘Maritime Authority’ in Zimbabwe,” the government wrote on February 11, 2026, in a letter seen by Mmegi.
The IMO’s Legal Committee, which, amongst other matters, deals with issues concerning unlawful activities at sea, is due to meet from 13 to 17 April 2026 at the IMO Headquarters in London. It is presently unclear whether any representatives from Botswana will attend the meeting.
One of the key items on the agenda for the upcoming LEG is to explore measures to prevent unlawful practices associated with the fraudulent registration and fraudulent registries of ships.