Cruise ship to house 2,000 refugees in Sweden.

Due to the current refugee crisis in Europe Sweden has been forced to hire a cruise ship to house 2,000 refugees. The Swedish Migration Board has rented the Ocean Gala, formerly the Island Escape for a cost of £65,000 PER DAY.

Officials in Sweden admitted they needed to ‘think outside the box’ to deal with crisis as the country can no longer cope with the sheer numbers arriving at its borders every week, it has been revealed. The ship has been rented at £65,000 per day for ‘at least’ the next year.

When the giant cruise ship is full it will provide bed and board for around 1,790 migrants – roughly the number arriving in the country every single day at the height of the crisis.

Willis Åberg, head of housing issues at the Swedish Migration Board revealed the board has been open about its struggles to house the refugees arriving in Sweden, even setting up tents in the middle of winter, and came up with the idea of the floating asylum centre a number of years ago – but had never had cause to use it, before now.

The ship has been modified but will generally operate as a functioning cruise ship.

Kjell Tandberg, managing partner of Florida-based US Shipmanagers, which now own the Ocean Gala said: ‘The swimming pool will be closed off, we will have decking on the top of it. The casino has already been removed and the lounges will be education and common areas. The restaurants are still there. The people on board will have three meals a day, but whether there is going to be one or all three, I don’t know.’

Already, an application to berth the Ocean Gala at Härnösand, 260 miles north of Stockholm, has encountered opposition, the locals living in town of Härnösand object to it mooring in their harbour and the local council felt the proposition was ‘not appropriate’ for the area.

Now I don’t want to get into a political discussion in this blog about the refugee crisis but I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

All comments greatly appreciated.

Bye for now.