Refugee pick up on my nans cruise
My Nan had just returned back from her 7 night cruise on the Adventure Of the seas with Royal Caribbean. She said she had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the cruise. As always Royal delivered on service, food and the entertainment but there was a bit of shock on the day before she returned home. She told me that after dinner they were relaxing having a drink when all of a sudden there was an announcement over the tannoy which alerted crew to an emergency. People started to gather on deck and to my nans surprise she noticed there was little boat at sea with women and children onboard. After much commotion and drama they were safely rescued and brought onboard. After much gossip and debate nan learnt that they were in fact refugees from Morocco. The tiny boat held 19 people in total of which 8 were children and one pregnant lady!!! Once the ship docked in Malaga they were then sent to the Red Cross where authorities in Spain were expected to deport them back home.
The whole event lasted about 2 hours and my Nan said the crew were fantastic onboard. I think they were really lucky that the ship managed to save them as it was just starting to lose light and it would of been terrifying at night stuck in the middle of the ocean for those poor people. I did have to laugh at my Nan though as she said at first she thought it was just holiday makers lost on a day trip.
I know there is a controversial debate on some cruise forums as to whether cruise ships should pick up refuges at sea in case they are endangering passengers onboard of pirates who maybe armed or even be terrorists but I would never dream for one moment that a cruise line would leave these people out at sea it would be awful.
About Me
I have been working in the Travel Industry for 16 years and originally started out in Business travel. After doing this for a while I was given an opportunity to move into the cruising industry and haven't looked back since. I thoroughly enjoy my job and can't think of anything…
Read more
Thank you for subscribing!