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| Manila harbour yesterday |
Stuck on a cruise ship
While most cruise ship passengers have now made it back to land, another crisis has been growing – with no safe haven in sight.
Around the world, more than 90,000 crew workers are still trapped on cruise ships, at least 50 of which have Covid-19 infections, a Guardian investigation has found. They are shut out of ports and banned from air travel that would allow them to return to their homes.
Many of these crew are quarantined in tiny cabins, and some have had their pay cut off. They have in effect become a nation of floating castaways, marooned on boats from the Galapagos Islands to Dubai port.
Many of the crew have only minimal communication with the outside world, making their situations hard to scrutinize. But at least 17 cruise ship workers are confirmed to have died from suspected Covid-19, and dozens more have had to be evacuated from ships and taken to hospital.
“We all have family, we all want to go home,” said one crew member who has been isolating in his cabin onboard the MSC Seaview off South America for nearly a month, but is no longer being paid.
The worker, who spoke via the internet and asked not to be named for fear of losing his job, said crew were initially allowed to move about the ship freely, but have been told to remain in their cabins since a worker who had already left the ship tested positive for Covid-19.
An American actor whose had a role in Rock Of Ages on Broadway is stuck on a ship off Florida. He was performing on the cruise ship. The Americans on board, and there are many, have tried to talk to their congress representatives and other politicians with no success. They are on a ship with no COVID-19 outbreaks and they won't allow them to disembark the ship!
Let's hope they get this resolved and all these people can be repatriated!
