Crewmembers Trapped on Happy Cruises' Gemini Cruise Ship?

A reader of Cruise Law News has informed me that CNN's iReport contains a message seeking help from a crewmember aboard the Gemini cruise ship operated by the now defunct cruise line "Happy Cruises." Happy Cruises is a Spanish cruise company which abruptly ceased operations on September 24th. When cruise lines suddenly stop operations due to financial problems, the crewmembers are often treated poorly and sometimes abandoned. In this case, Peruvian crewmember Trujillano Deceno Velásquez, a 32 year old cruise ship restaurant worker, left a message on CNN's iReport. He is crying for help, stating that the crew has been deceived and about to be abandoned in Gibraltar without pay. The message is in Spanish and is translated roughly as follows: DEAR CNN. The reason I'm writing is because we need you to help us, they are holding us hostage, against our will, owing us over four months worth of paychecks, with deceit we were first told that we would cruise from Malaga to Barcelona but then we weren't allowed to get off in Malaga. We left for Barcelona and were told we would arrive on Tuesday, but then the captain said we would arrive to Gibraltar on Wednesday 8am. Now we're being told it will be on Thursday at noon. This is the Happy Cruises Gemini, we're near the Gibraltar strait. Besides, today we were given the sign off sheet and they put "vacations". Many of us don't want to sign it. Please, we need help urgently, we don't know what to do and feel unprotected. They won't even let us call our families, we're being held against our will. And try to contact the "ITF" PLEASE, WE'RE BEGGING YOU, HELP US. I'M AWAITING YOUR ANSWER, PLEASE COME…WE'LL BE IN GIBRALTAR ON THURSDAY, OR MAYBE THEY'LL KEEP DECEIVING US, WE DON'T KNOW UNTIL WHEN, THERE'S SICK PEOPLE ON BOARD AND THEY DON'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING.. The link to the message is here and can be listened to below: A newspaper in Peru also has an article about the incident which can be read here. Do you have information, photos or video about the incident to share? Please leave a comment below. Photo credit: El Comercio

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One Response to Crewmembers Trapped on Happy Cruises' Gemini Cruise Ship?

  1. Lawyer says:

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