200 Indian crew stuck on MSC Grandiosa in Italy for 2 months

   May 25, 2020 ,   Accidents

About 200 crew from India (mostly from the states Maharashtra and Goa) on the MSC Cruises-owned liner MSC Grandiosa have been quarantined for 70 days at Port Civitavecchia (Rome, Italy).

The vessel started a 7-day Western Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona Spain and visited Marseille France and Palermo Sicily before docking in Civitavecchia on March 15, when Italy was lockdown due to highly increasing number of COVID-related deaths.

Currently, the crew members are in severe depression. Since March, 4 attempts to repatriate a number of them back to India via special repatriation flights have failed, with the latest being on May 23.

Onboard safety measures include the isolation of all the crew in separate passenger staterooms. Access to TV and wi-fi Internet is provided, but the crew is not allowed to leave the cabins and contact with each other. The ship's remaining (essential) crew include the Captain (Marco Massa) and management staff (Italians) plus security guards (from Israel).

For other MSC Grandiosa accidents and incidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.