PROTESTERS against arms deals made their point outside a Thurrock port this week - but found the ship they were targeting had passed them by.

The Bahri Yanbu ship, owned by Saudi Arabia's national shipping company, was due to stop at Tilbury on Wednesday afternoon after previously being turned away from Antwerp in Belgium due to protests.

Campaigners fear the arms on board could be used by Saudi-led forces that are carrying out a bombing campaign in Yemen which has put 14 million people at risk of famine.

As the ship neared UK waters, protesters raised banners at the Port of Tilbury declaring "no weapons beyond this point" and "stop arming Saudi".

But the ship did not arrive. Maritime tracking websites show that instead, it anchored in the Thames Estuary after travelling from Europe. And today (Thursday, 6 February) it docked at Cherbourg in France at around 4pm

Yesterday the Port of Tilbury declined to comment and the Port of London Authority said Bahri Yanbu would not be docking at a port in London.

France has opened its arms to the ship, though there was still a protest dockside. As the Bahri Yanbu docked dozens of activists held a protest, waving placards with slogans such as "Stop illegal arms sales" and "War crimes in Yemen - 230,000 lives".

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against the Arms Trade said: "We have no doubt that this ship was expected to dock in the UK, and the paper trail is pointing to Tilbury.

"There are clearly important questions for the government to answer about this ship and what may be on it. If the ship has changed route then when was that decided, and why?"

As well as concern being raised by campaigners, councillors were also critical of the ship stopping in the port. Thurrock Labour Councillor Martin Kerin had called it "very concerning" and said the borough must be "vigilant" about what kind of shipments are reaching the ports.

Throughout the five-year conflict in Yemen, the UK government has sold billions of pounds worth of arms to Saudi Arabia despite evidence of war crimes including the bombing of weddings, funerals and schools.

The government was eventually forced to stop in June when the Court of Appeal ruled the government had "made no concluded assessments of whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of international humanitarian law in the past, during the Yemen conflict, and made no attempt to do so".

The decision is being appealed.