By Damià Bonmatí, Almudena Toral, Patricia Clarembaux, Ronny Rojas, Alejandra Vargas, and Maye Primera for Univision
Every year, thousands of people board cruises for exotic journeys and all-you-can-eat buffets. What they don’t realize is that even though most cruise ships are owned by American companies, they might not be protected by U.S. law. Crimes that occur onboard — of which rape and sexual assault are the most common — occur in a perilous legal limbo. Environmental abuses, like pouring tons of hazardous material into the ocean, also go unpunished.
The industry is ruled by three companies: Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean International, and Norwegian Cruise Line. Together they control 82 percent of the market and made $2.8 billion in 2016. The companies have a powerful influence in Washington D.C. and millions of dollars in lobbying and donations have likely helped block attempts to more strictly regulate the industry.
A six-month investigation by Univision News unraveled this multi-billion-dollar industry. Below, they share with BRIGHT five things they learned.
1. Royal Caribbean is registered in Liberia.
Yes, the West African country. They’re not the only cruise company registered outside the United States: Carnival is registered in Panama and Norwegian in Bermuda. These countries have one thing in common: they are all tax havens with murky legal systems. Cruise behemoths deliberately have complex operational structures in multiple countries to sidestep the U.S. labor laws that protect workers and the environment. It also keeps their income largely tax-free.
2. There is no police department at sea.
The responsibility to investigate the hundreds of crimes that occur on cruise ships each year falls on authorities in the country where the company is registered, such as Liberia. When a crime happens on board, crew members — who don’t have legal jurisdiction — collect evidence and carry out an initial investigation. Only in some cases do they preserve the evidence until the ship docks.
Rape and sexual abuse are the most common crimes on board and minors make up a “significant percentage” of the victims.
Most passengers don’t realize that if they’re a U.S. citizen they can call the FBI, police, or the embassy at the next port. But for those who aren’t U.S. citizens, like the majority of crew members, they can only report the crime in the country where the company is registered.
3. Cruise ship employees often work 70-hour weeks without any days off.
Base salaries can range from $1,000 to $1,500 a month. For more invisible jobs, such as in laundry or the warehouse, that number dips to $600. Those who depend on tips have guaranteed wages as low as $500 a month, and for some waiters just $50. The majority of employees come from Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.
Their contracts depend on the labor laws where the company is registered. Since a 2006 court ruling, workers haven’t been able to file any claims in U.S. courts. Instead, their contracts say they must resolve issues through a private arbitrator paid for by the cruise line and based outside of the U.S.
4. Cruise ships are pouring sewage and hazardous waste into the ocean.
A ship traveling for one week with 3,000 passengers and crew can generate: 210,000 gallons of sewage, 1 million gallons of gray water (from showers and sinks), more than 130 gallons of hazardous waste, up to eight tons of solid waste, and 25,000 gallons of water contaminated with oil residues.
Currently, 265 ships run almost every day of the year carrying an average of 1,200 passengers.
About 40 percent of the ships operated by most cruise lines are old and sail with thousands of defects that compromise both the environment and passenger safety.
5. Cruise lines are buying their way out of responsibility.
In the last decade, the cruise industry spent over $31 million lobbying the U.S government. Several legislators believe this has allowed them to flout environmental regulations and avoid federal taxes.
Several legislators tried to get Congress to approve the Clean Cruise Ship Act, which would ban them from dumping waste near the U.S. coast. They tried in five separate years but failed to get enough support each time. The cruise industry has hired several lobbyists who used to work on security, crime, and the environmental impact of cruises for federal agencies like the Coast Guard and the FBI.
Read the full story by Univision News here.
