Cruise ship crews stranded at sea awaiting repatriation

AN ESTIMATED 100,000 cruise ship crew members are currently stuck at sea amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported yesterday.

Two staff members are known to have taken their own lives by jumping overboard, the Miami Herald said.

While passengers on the cruise ships were evacuated by April, many of the crews remain on ships docked around the world or anchored off the coast – some without pay.

Rockford Weitz, director of the Maritime Studies Programme at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, said there was “no excuse” for keeping staff onboard, and that the cruise companies – already threatened by the virus – were risking significant reputational damage.

“They have to be able to convince their customers they can find solutions and work constructively with public health authorities,” he said. “There’s no excuse for not finding the way home.”

Cruise companies shut down on March 13. On April 9 the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention banned cruise ships from operating in US waters until the end of July.

Repatriating the crew members has been hampered by some countries shutting their borders and cancelling all flights.

Roger Frizzell, spokesman for Carnival Cruise Lines, said the process was extremely complicated. “Our goal has been to repatriate our crew members as quickly as possible, but that has proven to be much more difficult in recent weeks because of port closures, country closures and global travel restrictions,” he said. “For example, we have 7,500 Filipinos on our ships in Manila,

‘For example, we have 7,500 Filipinos on our ships in Manila, waiting to be allowed to go ashore’

waiting to be allowed to go ashore.”

At least 578 cruise ship employees have contracted the virus and seven have died, the paper said.

Meshal Habib, 48, from Romania, is on board the Grand Celebration, owned by Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line. He has not been paid since March, and said the company has told him it cannot afford private flights home for him. “I pay rent for my parents and my sister,” he said. “I need to go home to work.”

Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line said it had repatriated around 100 people.