25 Apr 2020  |   05:13am IST

Stranded seafarer on board cruise ship urges CM to facilitate early repatriation

Team Herald

PANJIM: A seafarer on board a cruise ship has requested the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to consider their matter of return to India more sympathetically and facilitate their early repatriation from their locations.

 "It's sad to see how the Indian government has been less sympathetic towards the stranded citizens in foreign lands especially the seafarers.  Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the government and some of our own people have made seafarers as a formidable enemy on their own soil and are unwelcome at home, forgetting it is a humanitarian disaster"  said, Roger D’Costa, a seafarer who is  stranded on the 'Rhapsody of the Sea' ship, of RCL, which is anchored in Florida.

"The seamen on board the ship are undergoing a lot of mental stress and are frustrated for not receiving timely intervention by the Central and State govt. To cite my own example, presently, we have 750 crew members on board. This includes 130 Indian and remaining belonging to 40 other nationalities. The situation on other cruise liners is the same," said Roger while revealing that "all the other countries have got their respective charter flights finalized.” 

“Their respective govts are waiting to happily welcome them. Coming back to the stranded tourists in our own country, almost all nations are getting back their stranded citizens through chartered flights, which is very much witnessed in Goa" said Roger, who added that it's been more than a month now since they have been stranded at sea. “All of them have undergone a minimum 20 days of quarantine, some being completely kept behind closed doors. It's mentally killing us," quipped Roger.

He further went on to apologise to the CM if the video clips that went viral on social media have caused him some inconvenience.

"I would like to request our CM to kindly consider our matter sympathetically and facilitate our early repatriation from our respective ship. Life on board is very stressful. Please help us to get back to our respective families," Roger reiterated.