Cruising Toward Accountability – Guest Article from International Cruise Victims | Cruise Complaints | HolidayTravelWatch
International Cruise Victims Associations, Inc (ICV) is a group that is comprised of victims who survived and family members of victims who did not survive crimes while on a cruise vacation. Our purpose is to support each other and other victims of such crimes, and to support legislation to require accountability and improved safety for everyone on cruise vacations.
Since the beginning of International Cruise Victims Association (ICV), a little over two years ago, membership has grown to several hundred in 16 countries including the United Kingdom. Our website, www.internationalcruisevictims.org shows the many tragic stories of our members. As will be seen on our website, we now have a separate chapter in Australia.As more and more of these cruise crimes have become public, the U.S. Congress has started its own investigation into this matter by holding Congressional hearings.
In addition to the first Congressional hearing held in 2005, our members and I have participated in three additional hearings in March of 2006, March of 2007, and September of 2007. In the March 2006 hearing, we introduced a 10-point program to improve safety. This 10-point program can be viewed on our website.What have we learned in our journey over the past two years?
Some of the important items include the following:
- Cruise ships do not take the legal responsibility of investigating crimes that may occur during a cruise.
- Cruise ships do not take the legal responsibility for their medical care provided to passengers during any cruise.
- Cruise ships do not take legal responsibility for any excursions that they may sell to their passengers, even though they earn a substantial commission from these excursions.
At the request of a Congressional Committee in March of 2007, ICV members, including myself, met with the FBI on July 25, 2007 to review this matter. At this meeting, the FBI clearly indicated that they do not have the resources to follow up with these various crimes that occur on cruises. Records indicate that in 2005 only 50 cases were opened by the FBI. Of those 50 cases, there were only four convictions out of over 10 million passengers!
While we have not met with British law enforcement officials, I would assume that we would find that they also do not extensively follow up on cruise ship crimes. Since the cruise ships do not investigate crimes but only voluntarily report them to law enforcement agencies and these agencies says they do not have the resources to follow up; in effect, no one really follows up on crimes on cruise ships.
As a result, criminals know that they will probably not be prosecuted if they commit a crime on a cruise ship. Based upon court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times and published on January 20, 2007, it has been determined that the sexual crime rate for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line for the time period of 2003 to 2005 was significantly higher than reported by the cruise line industry in Congressional hearings. A detailed analysis of these court records by Dr. Ross Klein, an expert in this area, indicates that the actual sexual crime rates are 50% greater for passengers on cruise ships than in the average American city.
It is also worth noting that 80% of all crimes involve crew members. This review can be read in detail on our website shown under the March 20, 2007 Congressional Testimony of Dr. Klein. With the added concern of terrorism, additional independent security is necessary to protect passengers and crewmembers. In the October 16, 2006 issue of the Insurance Journal titled Maritime Terrorism Risk Extends to Cruise Ships and Ferry Boats, the article indicates that cruise ships and ferry boats need more protection against terrorist attacks that could kill and injure many passengers and cause serious financial losses.
This conclusion is based on a new RAND Corporation report. Since the cruise lines have failed to take the necessary steps to protect the passengers on their ships, it would appear that the only alternative is to have legislation introduced and passed to require improved accountability. In the United States this is starting to happen. On February 22, major legislation has been introduced in California. Senator Joe Simitian, a member of the California Senate, has introduced a bill to protect California waters from cruise ship pollution and cruise ship passengers from crimes on the high seas.
The legislation will establish the California Ocean Ranger program, placing independent officers with certifications in marine engineering and public safety on every cruise ship transiting California waters. On February 26, 2008 Representative Matsui of the U.S. House of Representatives released the following statement.
“We have now held two Congressional hearings on this issue, and I am working with Sen. John Kerry to introduce comprehensive legislation in the House and Senate to increase accountability of the cruise industry. For far too long, American families have unknowingly been at risk when they have embarked on what should have been relaxing sea voyages. I am pursuing multiple legislative avenues to make sure that the cruise industry takes action to keep their customers informed and safe. I will continue to fight to make sure that no person falls victim to harm on board a cruise ship as a result of inadequate oversight, reporting and safety precautions. Our work will not be done until the cruise industry has stepped up and taken the necessary measures to provide a reasonable level of security for their customers.”
Since 1999, when the cruise lines adopted a “Zero Tolerance” policy concerning crimes, reported crime reports indicate that the frequency of sexual assaults has increased since the late 1990s and it would appear that reporting of incidents continues to increase. We would hope that the cruise line industry would accept these proposed changes; however, history has clearly shown that they will probably do everything possible to avoid this new legislation. With Independent Sky Marshalls on airlines, it is only logical to give this same protection to passengers on cruise ships.
We believe that the time is coming that such legislation will be passed.
This article was written by The President of ICV, Mr Ken Carver, at first appeared in the Travel-Zine of HolidayTravelWatch; Get’Away – Your Route to Travel Rights – Issue 6 – May 2008
Tags: Get Away, Holiday Safety, ICV, International Cruise Victims
HTW has noted that amongst the submissions to the Committee on Toxicity (COT) it has been suggested that the symptoms highlighted by crew and passengers were akin to the condition of hyperventilation.
HTW has for many years received reports from concerned holiday makers or independent travellers as to the safety of their aircraft, ship or boat, train or road transport.
