As the rest of the world worries about re-opening after lockdowns or about new waves of coronavirus infections, more than 12,000 members of cruise ship crews are still waiting to get off their ships and head home.
Since March, when the industry shut down after multiple onboard outbreaks, the number of stranded crew members has dropped from an estimated 90,000 in April, and 70,000 in May, but many are still aboard, either because of restriction in their home countries, or, for most, the inability to land somewhere where air transport home can be arranged. For most countries, ship crew members are banned from commercial flights.
Many of the workers were completing multi-month contracts at the time, and have now been onboard ships for ten months to well more than a year. Some have been moved from their original ship to other ships of the same company.
The number comes from the U.S. Coast Guard which, according to its spokesperson, is “is tracking 57 cruise ships moored, at anchor, or underway in vicinity of a U.S. port, or with potential to arrive in a U.S. port, with approximately 12,084 crew members.” That includes a number of Americans, but it is not clear how many; the Coast Guard says 209, but CDC says it knows of only 53.
The Cruise Lines International Association, representing about 95% of cruise companies, gives a different figure of about 5,000 crew, but they are only counting those due to go home because their contracts have expired. There are also some crew members aboard who are working, since the ships require a working crew to keep systems operating and maintained.
