The stories emerging from Norfolk, Virginia are heartbreaking and enraging. At least 18 Filipino crew members aboard Carnival Sunshine, were forcibly removed from the ship, handcuffed, detained, stripped of their dignity, and deported back to the Philippines. These crew who held valid C1/D crew visas have now been banned from reentering the United States for 10 years.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents recently detained and removed crew members from Victory I and Victory II, the two small cruise ships operated by Victory Cruise Lines, while the vessels were sailing the Great Lakes. The removals happened during scheduled port stops in the United States, with Detroit confirmed as one of the key locations.
Cruise ship passengers sometimes try to smuggle things back into the country using a cruise ship, but this case was on a whole different level. Two women returning from a cruise raised eyebrows when they showed up at the Long Beach Cruise Port with 10 suitcases and a suspiciously calm attitude. Customs officers took notice and quickly uncovered why.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently announced a crackdown targeting cruise ship crew members involved in child exploitation offenses. The operation, led by CBP’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Human Trafficking Unit (FLL-HTU), resulted in the apprehension of 11 cruise ship crew members linked to child sexual exploitation at Port of Galveston in Texas and Port Canaveral in Florida. Authorities made one arrest after discovering disturbing content, while ten other crew members were removed from the U.S. following extensive investigations.
Chaos erupted at the Galveston Cruise Terminal today when a massive brawl broke out in the luggage pickup area, after guests disembarked from the cruise ship Carnival Jubilee. The incident happened after the cruise ship returned from a 7-day round-trip voyage to the Western Caribbean.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested a cruise ship crew member for possession and importation of child pornography in Frobisher Bay, near Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, Canada. The crew member, identified as Akshay Somaroo, a 31-year-old from Mauritius, was detained on September 1.
According to the RCMP, the arrest occurred when officers boarded the cruise ship as part of routine customs inspections, assisting the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
Crew Center received concerning news regarding the crew shore leave in New York. A crew member, who wishes to remain anonymous, has informed us that shore leave is currently not permitted.
At this time, we are working to gather more information to determine if this restriction applies to a specific cruise line or affects all cruise ships sailing to New York.
In a recent enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a crew member who deserted the cruise ship Viking Octantis was apprehended. The crew member disembarked the vessel at the port of Detroit on May 1, 2023, for a shore visit but failed to return, without authorization from CBP or the knowledge of the cruise line.
Crew Center received a large number of emails from crew members related to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) restrictions that brought about uproar by the crew in several US ports in October 2019. The concerns related to the restriction came in especially from crew members aboard cruise ships that only dock in US ports.
Today December 27, the cruise ship Spirit of Discovery operated by Saga Cruises arrived in New York with around 530 crew members and 1000 passengers onboard. The ship will be docked in New York for two days and the majority of the crew will have to stay onboard because they are not allowed to go ashore due to new restrictions.
