Vincentian sailors plying their craft onboard cruise vessels are today \u2018stranded\u2019 in Miami amidst COVID-19 forced border and flight restrictions.
\nLast Monday, one such marooned sailor reached out to Asbert News Network in hopes of provoking a response from the government here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many Vincentians, I\u2019ve been talking to Vincentians from Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian [Cruise Lines] \u2013 I\u2019m on Norwegian right now \u2013 and there are plenty more than 800 of us. I can tell that, more than 800 of us out here and we really want to come home \u2026 right now the food supply is like shortened because they cannot bring on the amount of food they want from outside.<\/p>\n
The food is not up to standard like it used to be but the problem is we just wanna come home, that\u2019s the main thing because it\u2019s not nice out here knowing that you could be exposed at any time to this disease,\u201d the young sailor explained while asking that we withhold his identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times more than 15 cruise ships a day are rotating between Port Miami and the invisible line three miles off Miami Beach where they are allowed to dump waste, as the industry waits for the COVID-19 pandemic to pass,\u201d MiamiHerald.Com reported. The crewman further described the situation onboard vessels that have been reported across international media as being the de facto homes for cruise ship crews who are \u201cstuck\u201d in Miami as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic worsens.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are out here and the company is taking care of everything but the problem is that the company is gonna repatriate everybody, the Filipinos and the Indonesians and the Indians, Brazilians \u2013 everyone is leaving. Their governments is opening the borders for chartered flights so that they can go home. [sic] They have a lot of persons in quarantine. So they placed everybody in single cabins for social distancing. The main fact is that we as Vincentians not only Vincentians but Caribbean people feel abandoned by our government \u2013 St. Lucians and Grenadians alike. Everyone else government is reaching out to them\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
To further exacerbate an already less than ideal situation, several of the sailors are onboard ships where at least one confirmed COVID-19 case have been announced or crew members are said to present with like symptoms. Some measure of daily testing is conducted, at least onboard the vessel where the Vincentian sailor is quarantined amongst other Eastern Caribbean nationals. \u201cWe do tests every morning; we do temperature tests every morning,\u201d he said. The sailor was also under the impression that our borders were closed and that, coupled with their lack of a \u201clink to the Prime Minister,\u201d were the obstacles preventing their eventual return home.<\/p>\n
ANN reached out to Prime Minister Gonsalves who promptly named Bishorn John, Chief Executive Officer at the SVG Port Authority, as his government\u2019s point person in the discussions that are underway with the cruise line owners. \u201cBishon John has been interfacing with the relevant person for me but I told Bishon what I\u2019d like to see. I\u2019d like [the cruise lines] to test all of them for COVID and I\u2019d like to see those results which are certified because we\u2019d want to know \u2013 if 200 people descend on us with COVID [how can we cope?]<\/p>\n
\u201cIn principle I have no problem at all with our nationals coming home, in fact if you are a citizen of a country I don\u2019t think that the government can say that you can\u2019t come home, lock off the borders from you. But in the circumstances, we have to make sure that any persons coming in such large numbers at this time, we have to have the right protocols. You know, they\u2019 have to be tested before coming in and they can\u2019t just say so; it has to be done by somebody independent. So the tests are done, they\u2019re certified and still when they come here they would have to be quarantined for 14 days even though they tested negative for COVID and the company would have to pay for their quarantine and all the associated charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
PM Gonsalves further clarified that the quarantine costs to be deferred to the Vincentian sailors\u2019 employers would specifically cover the costs incurred once the seamen and women arrived here. \u201cThey\u2019d have to pay for them in a particular facility. I don\u2019t know they might have to hire one or more hotels, and then security and all the rest of it \u2013 everything which is incidental. We value very much the men and women who go to sail. But the fact is we have to address this within the context of the capacity for us to take such a large number without we knowing what is their status.\u201d [sic]<\/p>\n
According to the Dr. Gonsalves, not only would these sailors have to adhere to the \u201cheightened quarantine protocols\u201d that are being put in place but, \u201cany of them, of course, who have COVID we\u2019d ask them to stay out until they\u2019re tested again to say that they\u2019re free.\u201d Sailors testing positive would be asked to stay wherever they are currently berthing, the Prime Minister confirmed. \u201cI want to know that they\u2019re coming [home] COVID free and even then they\u2019ll have to be quarantined even though they tested COVID free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although PM Gonsalves was unwilling to commit to a particular timeline by which the process would culminate in the sailors\u2019 repatriation he confirmed that \u201cthey have been in touch with Bishon John and I just saw on my phone that somebody from the Florida Cruise Association was trying to get me on the phone and left a text message but I\u2019d asked Bishon John to get involved in those discussions\u2026. What I\u2019m concerned about is\u2026.<\/p>\n
The fact that they\u2019re on the ship; I want to what is their status, how is everything with that and independently verify it, which is quite reasonable in order to protect them and to protect us but noting that they are Vincentians, I wouldn\u2019t lock the door on them.<\/p>\n
But it has to be in accordance with certain specific protocols observed of the board kind I\u2019m talking to you about.\u201d
\nJP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vincentian sailors plying their craft onboard cruise vessels are today \u2018stranded\u2019 in Miami amidst COVID-19 forced border and flight restrictions. Last Monday, one such marooned sailor reached out to Asbert News Network in hopes of provoking a response from the government here. \u201cThere are many Vincentians, I\u2019ve been talking to Vincentians from Royal Caribbean, Carnival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n