Technical experts must be granted immediate access to a rusting oil supertanker threatening an environmental calamity in the Red Sea, an independent United Nations expert is demanding. Abandoned five years ago when its engine room flooded with seawater, the leaking 44-year-old tanker FSO Safer still holds 1.1 million barrels of light crude oil.

“A UN technical team should be given all necessary means to assess the dilapidated tanker and conclusively avert the threat of a spill from the dilapidated tanker.” said Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights.

The floating storage and offloading vessel FSO Safer was abandoned off the coast of Yemen’s key port of Hodeidah, which has been under the control of Houthi militants, one side in the civil conflict between the group formally known as Ansar Allah, and the internationally-recognized Yemeni government.

Official approval to access the vessel still has not been granted by Houthi authorities, although they have expressed their intent in principle to allow a UN team on board.