U.S. turns ships away from Miami
MIAMI (CNN) -- As new international security standards come into effect to help secure ports, the U.S. Coast Guard has turned away five foreign-flagged ships from the Port of Miami, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday
Spokesman Luis Diaz told CNN four ships were expelled and one ship was denied entry to the port because they did not have the proper paper work, thereby not meeting the new security standards that began July 1.
Ships are required to be in possession of an International Ship Security Certificate upon entering another country to guard against the use of ships in a terrorist attack.
According to Diaz, one ship was turned away from the port after being boarded by a Coast Guard inspection team and four others were expelled after undergoing dockside inspections.
The ship that was refused entry was the Bolivian flagged freighter the Dahomey Express.
The Coast Guard was unable to release any information about the other four ships that were ordered to leave the port, Diaz said.
According to a Web site for the Port of Miami, more than 9 million tons of cargo passed through the port in 2003. The Coast Guard predicted that as many as 260 foreign ships would arrive in U.S. ports Thursday, and that a few would be denied entry if they did not comply with the new regulations.
Of the estimated 260 scheduled to arrive, Coast Guard teams had already inspected about 100 of them during a pre-enforcement phase in the past few months.
The Coast Guard was expected to board the remaining 160 ships to see if the vessels were in compliance.
A few ships, which have not received an International Ship Security Certificate, will be denied entry into U.S. ports, the Coast Guard said.
Lesser actions could be taken against ships that have certificates but which are found to have security lapses, such as failing to check visitor IDs.
The Coast Guard plans to board all overseas ships on their first visit to the United States.
-- CNN Producer Mike Ahlers in Washington and Assignment Editor Patrick Oppmann in Miami contributed to this report
