MIAMI _ For crew members who work 11-hour days aboard cruise ships without weekends, "shore leave" _ a few hours each week spent on land _ provides a necessary break from the stress of ship life.
When a list of new protocols from the Swiss company MSC Cruises titled "Life on board during COVID-19" began circulating on social media earlier this month, it included a ban on shore leave except for emergencies.
Current and past crew members questioned whether the protocols were real.
"If it's true that would really be unbearable," one crew member said in a message to the Herald.
The list is real. A spokesperson for MSC Cruises confirmed in an email that crew will not be allowed to get off the ships unless there's an emergency during the company's "initial phased restart." The company qualified that it would not restart until "the time is right to do so and we receive the approval from the relevant local health and other authorities _ including the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in the U.S. _ to our new health and safety operating protocol."
MSC Cruises is the world's fourth largest cruise company, with U.S. headquarters in South Florida. Cruises are banned in the U.S. through at least Sept. 30. Like other major cruise lines, MSC is not paying non-working crew still stuck at sea.
During shore leave, crew members access free internet at port seafarer centers, buy toiletries and visit the local area. The MSC spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company will be providing internet and toiletries for crew members or raising salaries to compensate for the extra hardship. The list of new protocols said the company will increase its "psychological support system for crew well-being."
Life without shore leave is already a reality _ and many say an unmanageable one _ for thousands of crew members still stuck on board cruise ships by complex international repatriation rules and expensive, private-only travel options that have continued to shift during the four months the industry has been shut. In U.S. ports, the CDC has banned crew from getting off ships unless they are flying home. Embarking crew are required to quarantine for 14 days on board.
Those considering whether to return to their jobs at sea are weighing fears about catching COVID-19 _ at least 23 crew members have died from the disease, a Miami Herald investigation has found _ and the prospect of months without touching land.
The restriction on movement could make it more difficult to recruit crew members once cruising is allowed again.
"When it's your job, you have to visualize being locked into your job and work area for an indeterminate length of time," said Lesley Warrick, executive director of the Seafarer's House at Port Everglades. "It's inhumane."
If other companies decide to restart cruising while ports are still prohibiting shore leave, their crews also will have to stay aboard.
Roger Frizzell, spokesperson for Carnival Corporation, said the company will have "appropriate protocols in place regarding shore leave policy" when cruising resumes.
Despite the COVID restrictions, "From a recruiting standpoint, there continues to be high demand for cruise jobs on our ships around the world," Frizzell said in an email.
Crew members for Royal Caribbean Group say they were asked about the importance of shore leave in a company survey earlier this month. A spokesperson said the company currently is not allowing shore leave and has not yet determined its protocols for when cruising resumes.
Spokespeople for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Disney Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages did not respond to requests for comment.
'It causes anxiety'
Under the Maritime Labor Convention of 2006, the only international workplace protections in place for seafarers, workers on ships must be provided shore leave. A spokesperson for the International Labor Organization did not respond to a request for comment. Ninety-seven countries have ratified the MLC to enforce its crew welfare rules. The United States is not one of them.
A spokesperson for the International Transport Workers' Federation, a union that works with cruise companies to set workplace conditions, declined to comment.
The CDC stopped allowing shore leave when the cruise industry first shut down operations in mid-March. Four months later, the agency is still prohibiting crew from getting off ships in ports as the U.S. experiences a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths on land.
"Shore leave for crew creates a potential risk of exposure for crew while ashore and also risks exposing those shoreside communities," a CDC spokesperson said in an email. "Our data and research over the last several months have shown us that it is difficult to eliminate COVID-19 from cruise ships, even with no passengers and a reduced number of crew on board."
Five cruise ships currently in and around U.S. waters are experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 or COVID-like illness, according to the agency.
The shore-leave ban sets up a painful dilemma for crew members who must choose between jobs that pay well relative to local wages and the stress of shipboard confinement.
For a crew member from Peru who has worked in food-and-beverage for three cruise companies over the past 20 years, the decision has been grueling.
"What can I do? I have family, kids," he said. "Being on the ship is really stressful, it's very important for us, shore leave, to maintain our mental health in a good condition. To support my family I have no choice." He asked that the Miami Herald not use his name for fear of retaliation.
But for an MSC crew member who has not stepped foot on land since late February, being at sea without shore leave "causes anxiety, mood and character changes. You can see it," he said. The company has not paid him since mid-April while he waits to be sent home. He requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
When he first started working on cruise ships a few years ago, he didn't want to get off at the port stops. "I'm not very adventurous," he said. But a supervisor urged him to go ashore, even if it was just for a walk around a drug store.
"She ordered me to. She said please go, do something," he said. "I learned quickly. The routine is so killer in here. Whenever you have time to go out, you come back feeling better."
After five months without any shore leave, he prefers the days that the ship comes into port to refuel and restock on food compared to the days anchored at sea, when he can't see the land. Even though it's difficult to see people walking around on land while docked, he said he feels more connected to the world.
He is baffled by company efforts to restart cruising while he is still waiting to be repatriated. "How can they be thinking about starting when they have a big humanitarian crisis on their ships?" he said.
Gan Sungaralingum, 38, has been stuck on Princess Cruises ships since he began his contract in January. After a cross-Atlantic journey from the Bahamas to South Africa in May, the ship meant to repatriate him had to bypass his home of Mauritius when his government blocked entry. Sungaralingum was able to get off the ship in Manila, Philippines, on July 3 and fly to Amsterdam, Holland, where he joined a different ship.
"It felt like freedom," he said of stepping on to the pier in Manila.
Although the ship has large indoor spaces and a walking track, it can feel claustrophobic, he said.
"It's like you're in an aquarium and you can see outside the aquarium, but you can't go. You can only go so far," he said. "People have to get off to breathe and connect, feel freedom, once a week."
