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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 scrutinise. 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, the Guardian found.
“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.
One crew member, who spoke anonymously for fear of losing his job, said those on his ship were initially allowed to move about freely, but have since been told to remain in their cabins after a co-worker (who had already left the ship) tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Guardian’s reporting adds that at the beginning of April the U.S. Coast Guard estimated there were approximately 93,000 crew members still onboard ships in and around U.S. waters alone. In other parts of the world, its believed there are tens of thousands more crew members stuck on their ships. The article quotes John Hickey, a maritime lawyer, who said crew members “did not have access to the rights afforded by their nations of citizenship, yet they were often outside the jurisdiction of the countries where their ships were sailing.”