Coronavirus: Petition launched to help stranded cruise ship performers return to UK

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition calling on a cruise ship company to get five British performers stranded on a ship back to the UK.

The petition urges Norwegian Cruise Liners, as well as the government, to help the performers who have are stuck at sea and are “anxious and upset”.

NCL was previously criticised in March, after 18 performers from the UK and Ireland were kept on the Norwegian Encore ship.

The petition was started by the mother of performer Ben Ash, aged 20, who was part of a show called Choir of Man on board the Norwegian Escape ship.

According to his mother, Michelle Ash, the performers’ contracts ended in March, but he and his fellow performers have not been able to return on any flights home.

“Until recently, Ben has spent time in a cabin with no window, and they are only allowed out on deck to get some fresh air,” she said, adding: “Other than that, the lads are confined to their cabins and only allowed to come out to eat meals.”

The Norwegian Escape is understood to have docked in Manila last weekend, to allow Filipino crew to disembark.

But it has now returned to sea “for the foreseeable” future, with the five performers on board.

“The US coastguard and the National Center for Disease Control are preventing seafarers from taking commercial flights from Florida, despite the fact they have been isolated for her a month and have never had a case of Covid-19 on board,” the petition states.

It has been more than five weeks since the performers have been on land and three weeks since they were last paid, it adds.

The petition claims NCL is contractually and legally obliged to get these performers home and adds that the performers are “upset, angry and understandably anxious”.

Equity is understood to be helping the performers.

NCL did not respond to a request for comment.