Namibian crew stuck at sea

ABOUT 10 Namibian crew members of the 'Carnival Fascination' passenger cruise liner are stuck on the vessel about 10 nautical miles west of Walvis Bay.

The vessel has been sailing along Namibia's central coast for the past few days trying to dock, but has been refused entry by the Namibian Ports Authority (Namport).

The liner has been sailing between Walvis Bay and Henties Bay since, and has been idling outside port limits about 10 nautical miles from Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.

Namport acting chief executive officer Kavin Harry said he was aware that the vessel with Namibian crew is outside port limits waiting for approval to dock.

He said, the issue is the translocation of crew members from the landlocked countries who want to pass through Namibia to return home.

Harry said the owner of the cruise liner liaised with the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation, as well as with the various crew members' embassies to negotiate the docking and transit permission.

This would involve the Ministry of Works and Transport as well as the Ministry of Health and Social Services due to the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the risk that allowing the foreigners to pass through Namibia might be a costly risk.

“Agreement is needed between all parties, as well as government approval for the vessel to dock,” Harry said.

He said, Namport has to ensure safety measures are in place and are adhered to.

“We have an obligation to advise the authorities of the risks. There are many crew members, and before they can disembark, we must be assured that the passage from the ship to wherever they are going will be without risk. This is very serious,” Harry said. A relative of one of the crew members, who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of the crew member being victimised, told The Namibian yesterday the local crew has contracts of several months with the world-famous Carnival cruise liner company.

Some have been on vessels since last year.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cruise liners' global services have come to a standstill, forcing crews to return to their countries of origin.

According to the relative, Namibian and southern African crew members were transferred to the 'Carnival Fascination' when it was sailing the central Atlantic Ocean.

They would have been offloaded in Durban, South Africa, before the vessel continued to England.

“The problem is that South Africa would not allow foreigners to disembark there,” explained the relative, suggesting crew members would then be offloaded in England, which would become a logistical nightmare for southern Africans. The Namibian understands that besides Namibians, there are about 120 crew members from landlocked countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Because South Africa would not take in foreign crews, the ship was reportedly forced to divert its course to Walvis Bay where the Namibians and other foreign crew members would be able to disembark.

This was apparently planned for Monday, and they expected to dock on Tuesday.

Vessel agent Sturrock Grindrod Maritime refused to comment, referring The Namibian to Namport.

Attempts to get comment from minister of international relations and cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah were unsuccessful.

An international press release from the Carnival cruise liner company earlier this month stated that it had offloaded guests from all its 27 ships because it prioritised the health and safety of the crews.

“When the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's no sail order was extended in April, Carnival made the decision to repatriate the vast majority of our crews in conjunction with our announcement to suspend operations until late June (which has now been extended again until August),” it stated.