“It must have been a dream cruise and it ended in ordeal, wandering on the boat”. A group of French passengers from the “Costa Magica”, a cruise ship which had been turned away in early March from several Caribbean ports due to the coronavirus, filed 180 complaints in Paris against the company on Friday, in particular for manslaughter.
From March 6 to 13, in a loop departing from Guadeloupe, the boat and its 2,303 passengers were refused to dock in most of the islands visited - Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, Saint Lucia - in due to the pandemic.
In the absence of a stopover, the crew would then have encouraged the passengers to refer to the activities of the ship (shops, spa, restaurants, casino) without sufficient respect for health rules and without informing them of the suspicions of contamination on board, according to testimonies. of the complainants cited in support of the complaint. At least two contaminations were made official on March 13. But the cases seem to have actually multiplied.
"They will be dozens to fall seriously ill with the coronavirus," said Le Point in an investigation. The “Costa Magica” was finally authorized on March 25 to anchor three miles off the coast of Florida in the United States, which had allowed six crew members to be transferred to hospitals.
Three bereaved families
These complaints were lodged for “unintentional homicides and injuries”, “endangering the life of others” as well as for “obstructing assistance measures and failure to provide assistance”. The families of three passengers who died from Covid-19 according to lawyer Philippe Courtois accuse the company of various faults or negligence.
"The staff on board were faulty, the passengers had almost no information on board and only knew from the local press that there were cases on the ship", denounces Me Courtois, on behalf of the collective which according to him brings together some 850 French passengers. "All the victims want to know how this cruise was able to be maintained when the ship had already been refused in several ports the previous week", he adds, criticizing the "extremely light" means put in place by the company. : very random temperature measurements, hydroalcoholic gel in insufficient quantity, etc.
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Costa Cruises, the world's number one brand in the Carnival sector, has suspended its cruises around the world until August 15 due to the Covid-19 epidemic. “From the emergence of the virus and throughout the epidemic, Costa Cruises has always complied with the provisions in force, defended the group to Le Point. We would like to insist on the fact that, when the cruise began and when the travelers boarded the boat, no ban, local or international, had yet been pronounced ”.