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A cruise ship that left New Zealand is now stuck off the coast of New Caledonia, low on fuel and a major storm approaching and without permission to dock.
Le Laperouse He has a financial exemption to come to New Zealand during the cruise season, but was denied entry last week after Immigration denied 61 of his 90 crew visas because they are not considered essential workers.
The government says the ship left Jakarta before its paperwork was processed, but the ship’s owner believes that and the crew received the go-ahead to come.
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Sarina Bratton, Head of Ponant Cruises for Asia Pacific, said Control the ship had traveled 3,600 nautical miles to reach New Zealand.
“We are trying to get into Noumea, it has been a difficult situation … and we still have very little fuel.
“We have talked to him [New Zealand] Department of Immigration on the lack of available people who have sufficient security training certification in New Zealand.
“We have been in contact with various recruiting agencies, shipping service agents, superyachts, trying to identify how many New Zealanders, if any, might be available for work,” he said.
“We have been operating in New Zealand on a seasonal basis for the last seven years. And our crew composition has not changed. It has been the same as for the last seven years. Our request to the Ministry of Health spoke clearly about the number of crew members.
Journey through the wild land
Le Lapérouse was to carry 100 passengers on seven trips through New Zealand.
“He also gave us a full breakdown of the nationalities of all the crew on board the ship.
“We were not aware of the requirement to have visas approved before leaving for New Zealand.
“Our New Zealand port broker who handles all of our affairs and handles all commercial ships going in and out of New Zealand, via Covid-19, they weren’t familiar with that either.
“So it wasn’t until much closer … that they told us they would approve the technical team, but they wouldn’t approve the hotel team.”
Bratton says he believes there has been a “disconnect” between government departments over the application.
She says the denial has cost the cruise company roughly $ 1.6 million and could cost more.
“We have the approval letter from the Ministry of Health and it says that obviously the crew requires the appropriate visas before arriving in New Zealand. It does not say before leaving anywhere and coming to New Zealand.”
She believes that every member of the ship’s crew is an essential worker.
“Each member of the crew has certain responsibilities for managing safety.
“So anyone who comes in, they need to be trained on what their responsibilities are. We told the Immigration Department that we would try to locate and maybe we could get around 20 crew members from New Zealand, if we were lucky.
“We have put ads in the newspaper over the weekend in New Zealand. We have spoken with numerous recruitment agencies and we are not having much luck.
“I informed New Zealand Immigration of that situation, we have been in contact over the weekend. And I am just waiting for news to see if they have flexibility or not for the ship to arrive and operate normally.”
You say you are concerned about the safety of the crew on board. Le Laperouse as it is low on fuel and has no place to dock.
“This morning we were informed that there is a cyclone that is beginning to head towards New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
“Whenever there is bad weather, you can sail away from it, but we are in a very low fuel situation. Hopefully it doesn’t get there.”
Immigration New Zealand said on Monday it has no further updates regarding Le Laperouseother than confirming that you continue to interact with Ponant to discuss your options.
Maritime graduates, Air NZ cabin crew could have played roles – Maritime Union
Maritime Union Deputy Secretary Craig Harrison said Control He was surprised by the news about the cruise.
“I thought the company had gone to interested parties earlier in the year and to the industry and told them they wanted to shoot down a ship. Some work could have been done to find workers to fill those vacancies.
“For example, the masseuse, the hairdressers and the catering team … There are many young workers who work part-time and informally, such as Interisland Ferry and Strait Shipping, who would love the opportunity to enter the industry .
“And just thinking about the workers who have been displaced on Air New Zealand, if there could have been some funding through Covid-19 and working with the maritime schools to get some qualifications for even those people to try and fill these vacancies on the ship. .. “
With plenty of notice, he said, those positions could have been filled on the ship by New Zealand personnel.
“We would love to promote the opportunity for young New Zealanders to be part of a solution.”
Harrison said the required safety certification is the same qualification that is needed to work on the Cook Strait railroad ferries.
“Catering staff, cooks and crew have these qualifications.
“Unless there’s something really special on the ship, which would surprise me, other than that you have the engineers, the officers and what we call the deck crew.”
He said if Ponant went directly to the maritime industry to help find crew, the industry could help.
“If you talk to the maritime schools, you will find these young New Zealanders going through those schools now. They are fighting for positions on ships, and they have already completed many of those basic courses.”
