The crew of the cruise ship went on hunger strike in quarantine, demanding the return to their homeland

14 desperate employees of the cruise ship Navigator of the Seas, which is now docked in Port Miami, have gone without food for more than 72 hours - they went on a hunger strike in the hope that this will affect the cruise line and they will be sent home, writes Miami Herald.

Photo: Shutterstock

14 Romanian citizens on the ship Royal Caribbean International, which was at sea for about two months, were so tired of waiting for their return to the port that they began a hunger strike. According to crew members, striking officers are desperate for official evidence that they will be sent home after they have been trapped in the sea since March 13, and amid reports of deaths of crew members of cruise ships in circumstances that are not completely clear .

“We feel like we are all hostages at the moment,” said one crew member, who asked not to be named for fear the company would retaliate and delay the return home. “This company needs to understand that we are not boxes of products that can be moved around.”

The latest fatalities not related to COVID-19 infection were the deaths of three crew members on separate vessels operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Carnival Corporation, who died a few days before they could return home.

One of them was a 39-year-old Ukrainian on Regal Princess, who jumped overboard and did not survive. Her body was recovered from water in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the ship moored on May 9 to repatriate crew members.

The other dead was a man aboard a Carnival Breeze bound for Southampton with plans to disembark crew members in several European cities. The cruise line did not reveal the cause of death "out of respect for his family."

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Third was the man on the Mariner of the Seas, anchored off the private Royal Caribbean island in the Bahamas. Company spokesman Jonathon Fishman said the crew member died for "natural reasons." Fishman did not respond to requests for comment as to whether the crew member was tested on COVID-19. At the end of April, one of the employees jumped from the Jewel of the Seas ship while the ship was not far from Greece; his body was never found.

Fishman said employees from the Navigator of the Seas had planned a charter flight from Barbados to Romania on May 21. Fishman said the company has repatriated about 15 of its 000 cruise ship employees and plans to send most employees home before the end of May.

But the starving people were transferred from the Anthem of the Seas ship, where they worked until the industry closed on March 13, and it was originally planned to send them home on a charter flight on May 16. Without explanation, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bailey announced that they would be sent aboard the Enchantment of the Seas and returned home by May 21.

The company had been telling crew members for several weeks that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had banned flights related to crew repatriation before Bailey changed course and agreed to sign the necessary agreements with the CDC to send crew members home. The company also provided a hotline for psychological assistance to employees.

Royal Caribbean Cruises executives have signed the required repatriation agreement with the CDC for 20 crew members, all U.S. citizens. At Carnival Corp. signed an agreement for 884 crew members from Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Canada, and the Norwegian company Cruise Line Holdings signed an agreement for 3238 crew members from the Philippines, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Honduras, Argentina, Canada and the United States.

MSC Cruises did not repatriate crew members on flights from the United States, since the CDC rules were enforced in mid-April, and does not plan to use flights from the United States to repatriate the crew, a company spokesman said.

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Romanian officials said they had turned to European leaders for help, including the Romanian Embassy in the United States. The Romanian Consulate in Miami did not respond to a request for comment.

Navigator of the Seas crew say the hotline is not enough, as some employees have begun to lose hope that they will be sent home. Although 15 employees initially planned to go on a hunger strike, one of them decided to eat, but still supports this action. The remaining 14 crew members are trying to support each other, waiting for the company to issue written confirmation of the crew sending home.

“In some states, life is returning to normal,” the crew member said. - And we are still on this ship. Nobody supports us. There is no more hope."

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