The Carnival Magic cruise ship, with 756 crew including five Croats, sailed into Dubrovnik on Wednesday morning, 20th May, for the repatriation of seafarers to their home countries.
Before arriving in Dubrovnik, Carnival Magic made a technical stop in Gibraltar.
Besides the Croats, aboard the ship are Ukrainian and Romanian nationals as well as seafarers from Slovakia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo. Their repatriation will be arranged by charter flights to Romania and Ukraine and by bus transfers to neighbouring countries.
No one on the ship was infected with COVID-19 given that it had been quarantined a long time but that epidemiological measures would be adhered to. Croatian authorities will check the temperature of the entire crew disembarking the ship but don’t expect any infections.
The Carnival Breeze is expected to arrive in Dubrovnik on 27th May, carrying onboard 800 seafarers waiting repatriation.
Port of Dubrovnik have received repatriation calls in the past as well. On 15th August 1920, after the end of the First World War, the British transatlantic KILDONAN CASTLE sailed into the Port of Gruž, Dubrovnik, with 1,800 Yugoslav returnees, war prisoners in Siberia on a long journey from Vladivostok. In December 1920, Croatian-Hungarian ship SZEGED, sailed from Odessa via Istanbul unexpectedly sailed to Port of Dubrovnik, overloaded with 2530 refugees. Last repatriation effort was after Croatian Homeland war in 1990’s.
