Dimitris Kouimtsidis
THE Foreign Office is working to repatriate 170 cruise ship passengers that weren’t allowed to disembark in Spain and had to go to Italy instead.
The Costa Pacific cruise ship departed Buenos Aires in Argentina on March 3 and was due to dock in Tenerife, Malaga and Barcelona, before moving onto Marseille in France and Savona in Italy.
When the ship departed Argentina the coronavirus crisis had not got to the situation it has been for the last ten days.
Therefore when the ship approached the Spanish ports, disembarkation was prohibited, as per the government decree.
Marseille was the next destination, where French passengers were allowed to disembark.
When the ship reached its final destination of Savona, all passengers were allowed to get off and now the Spanish Foreign Office is trying to bring back the 170 Spaniards trapped there.
Italian doctors tested everyone on board and apparently so far no one has tested positive for Covid-19.
Questions have been raised of the government as to why Spaniards weren’t allowed to get off in their home country and had to go to Italy, which has experienced the most coronavirus related deaths in the world.
The Government’s reply was that it acted as per the decree that had been put in place.
