A State Party that has reasonable grounds to suspect that a vessel that is flying its flag or claiming its registry, that is without nationality or that, though flying a foreign flag or refusing to show a flag, is in reality of the nationality of the State Party concerned is engaged in the smuggling of migrants by sea may request the assistance of other States Parties in suppressing the use of the vessel for that purpose.
Država pogodbenica, ki utemeljeno sumi, da se plovilo, ki plove pod njeno zastavo ali trdi, da je v njej registrirano, ali je brez nacionalnosti, ali kljub temu da plove pod tujo zastavo ali je noče izobesiti, dejansko pripada tej državi, ukvarja s tihotapljenjem migrantov po morju, lahko zaprosi za pomoč drugih držav pogodbenic pri preprečevanju uporabe plovila za take namene.