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Cruise ship “Armonía”: Around 1,500 passengers are stuck at the port of Barcelona
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David Zorrakino/dpa
A cruise ship with around 1,500 passengers was prevented from continuing its journey in Barcelona on Wednesday because of fake visas. There were 69 Bolivians on board the "Armonía" of the shipping company MSC who did not have valid Schengen visas, the shipping company confirmed on request corresponding reports from the Spanish media. The Bolivian newspaper “El Deber” also reports accordingly.
The group of Bolivians, which also included families with children, embarked in Brazil for the journey to Barcelona, where the trip was to end. However, they were not allowed to leave the ship for shore leave like the other passengers, according to the newspaper La Vanguardia. The cruise ship was supposed to continue its journey through the Mediterranean on Tuesday.
Some relatives of the Bolivians on board living in Spain told media that the people had been defrauded. An agency in South America offered the passage and visas online and charged up to $10,000 per person - that's the equivalent of 9,230 euros. This agency also canceled promised return tickets after the cruise ship left, La Vanguardia quotes relatives as saying.
When asked, the shipping company emphasized that it was working with the Spanish authorities to regulate the situation of passengers with invalid documents. "Although their documents were checked upon embarkation in Brazil, further investigation revealed that the visas were sophisticated forgeries that are not valid for entry into the Schengen area," the shipping company emphasized in a written statement.
The ship will remain in Barcelona until the situation is clarified. At first it was unclear how long this could take and what would become of the passengers without a Schengen visa. According to “La Vanguardia,” the police do not rule out the possibility that the Bolivians actually wanted to get to Spain illegally.
spr/dpa