Coronavirus: when despair awaits the crew of cruise ships

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Confined to the sea since the appearance of the coronavirus, crew members from different liners are starting to lose patience. Desperation about the situation could be the cause of recent suicides.

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How many are stuck on boats sailing the seas of the globe in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, sometimes confined to their cabin, waiting to be repatriated? Hard to say. But for some cruise ship crew members , the wait seems to turn to despair.

Suicides

On Sunday, a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman jumped overboard the Regal Princess , off the coast of Rotterdam, confirmed to AFP the company Princess Cruises, owned by the cruise giant Carnival. The ship is preparing to repatriate its personnel on board.

Two other cruise ship crew members have died in the past few days in unclear circumstances. A man apparently committed suicide on Saturday aboard the Carnival Breeze , which was sailing between the Bahamas and Europe, where his crew was to disembark. "  His death is not related to Covid-19, but out of respect for his family, we will not give more details,  " commented a spokesperson for the Carnival group.

An employee of another boat, the Jewel of the Seas , died on May 2 after going overboard. An investigation is underway.

Companies that violate international maritime law

According to Jim Walker, a lawyer specializing in maritime law, cruise lines are responsible. “  The priority of the cruise lines was to protect their customers. Crews are the least of their concerns, he says. They've been on the liners for two months now. Half of them are no longer even paid. Maritime law stipulates that its crew must be repatriated within a given time. But what the cruise lines do is look for the cheapest way to do it. Instead of paying for plane tickets from the United States, they transship crews in boats that sail long distances to their countries of origin. "

Others, aboard the Navigator of the Seas , blocked at the port of Miami, have started a hunger strike in order to be able to return to shore. "  We have the feeling of being all taken hostage,  " one of them told the Miami Herald on condition of anonymity. “  The company (Royal Caribbean) must understand that we are not boxes of food that we can move here and there. "

"  I know that these companies are going through a difficult period with the Covid-19, but they earn billions of dollars each year, which escape the American tax authorities because their boats are registered abroad, underlines the lawyer specialist in maritime law . And even more serious, they thus escape American labor law. Shipping companies have their employees as they want. But in this case, you cannot hold a crew on board against their will. It is a violation of maritime law.  "

According to the United States Coast Guard, 104 cruise ships are currently located off the coast of the United States, with nearly 72,000 crew members on board in total.

►Also read: Sailors of the world, they sounded the sirens and called the next generation

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