Can anybody hear us?

In an emotional post, a cruise ship crew member wrote about how countries are not letting them disembark from their ships ever after having no coronavirus case onboard.

“I am one of the crew members stuck at sea due to COVID-19. I am currently anchored in the bay of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, onboard the Koningsdam. I am not sure how many Portuguese we have onboard, considering that we have crew members from 8 different ships and more than 70 nationalities. We were transferred on the 29 of April, from the Seabourn Sojourn, where we were already complying with all the regulations required for the disembarkation – social distance, wear a face mask at all times in a public area, individual cabin, meal times of half an hour to a certain limited number of people, hand sanitizing mandatory in every corner, temperature checks twice a day, etc.

I must say that our company has done everything they possibly could to keep us healthy, safe, and sane within their power and for that I am enormously grateful. Today we complete our 75th day of self-isolation. During all this time we never had a single case onboard. We are all healthy and in good shape. So, we don’t understand which reason leads to all countries we arrive, to decline our request to disembark, to refuse us the chance to return to our countries. We don’t understand why we are being treated by governments and politicians  – but especially by social media – as if we are mostly responsible for transporting the virus, even though statistical cases onboard or related represent only 0,07% of the world.

We do not understand why we are not given the chance to return to our families and loved ones. We should be the ones afraid to go into the world, considering we are living in a place with zero cases, and going to a place with millions, but instead it’s the world that is afraid of us. We are all getting to a point where we lose ourselves, our mental sanity, and our sense of right or wrong. There have been already four suicides from crew members in different ships. That is how desperate it gets when you do nothing wrong and yet you are powerless in what comes to your rights as a human being. And even with all said we are still patiently waiting, day after day, for those with power to take action in our behalf.”

We just want to go home. Is that too much to ask?

 

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Can anybody hear us? I am one of the crew members stuck at sea due to COVID-19. I am currently anchored in the bay of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, onboard the Koningsdam. I am not sure how many Portuguese we have onboard, considering that we have crew members from 8 different ships and more than 70 nationalities. We were transferred on the 29 of April, from the Seabourn Sojourn, where we were already complying with all the regulations required for the disembarkation – social distance, wear a face mask at all times in a public area, individual cabin, meal times of half an hour to a certain limited number of people, hand sanitizing mandatory in every corner, temperature check twice a day, etc. I must say that our company has done everything they possibly could to keep us healthy, safe and sane within their power and for that I am enormously grateful. Today we complete our 74th day of self isolation. During all this time we never had a single case onboard. We are all healthy and in good shape. So, we don’t understand which reason leads to all countries we arrive, to decline our request to disembark, to refuse us the chance to return to our countries. We don’t understand why we are being treated by governments and politicians – but specially by social media – as if we are mostly responsible for transporting the virus, even though statistically cases onboard or related represent only 0,07% of the world. We do not understand why we are not given the chance to return to our families and loved ones. We should be the ones afraid to go into the world, considering we are living in a place with zero cases, and going to a place with millions, but instead it’s the world that is afraid of us. We are all getting to a point where we loose ourselves, our mental sanity and our sense of right or wrong. There has been already four suicides from crew members in different ships. That is how desperate it gets when you do nothing wrong and yet you are powerless in what comes to your rights as a human being. And even with all said we are still patiently waiting, day after day, for those with power to take action in our behalf. We just want to go home. Is that to much to ask?

A post shared by Humans At Sea (@humansatsea) on May 15, 2020 at 9:40pm PDT