A family festivity went badly as an Ottawa woman has been informed she won’t be allowed to get on a cruise ship because she is Chinese.
Ming Yang has been residing in Canada for 15 years, she was assumed to float on a seven-day sail among nine other family members and friends this weekend, however, a latest Norwegian Cruise Line guideline holds the company will refuse boarding to anyone having a Hong Kong, Chinese or Macau nationality, no matter where they are living.
The policy is racially prejudiced and pointing finger at certain races.
The company maintained the guideline is to curb the novel coronavirus that instigated in Wuhan, China. Yet, Ming Yang hasn’t visited China in the last six months, she opposed the policy saying “I feel I’ve been targeted just because I am a Chinese passport holder, the policy is very racist, and it’s targeting a certain race”.
Yang put her name down for the seven-day cruise by Sunwing Airlines. The ship is presumed to head off Miami on Saturday and stop by Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean- the opposite end of the world from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic.
Yang claimed she was not informed about the latest policy by the Norwegian Cruise Line or the Sunwing, and she came to know about from a news report.
The Norwegian Cruise line updates the policy on the website stating “Any guest that holds a Chinese, Hong Kong, or Macau passport will be unable to board any of our ships, regardless of residency”.
It holds, “The safety, security and well-being of our guests and crew are our number one priority. We have proactively implemented several preventative measures outlined below due to growing concerns regarding Coronavirus infections in China”.
The Cruise line denied access to all those who have visited or were traveling through Hong Kong, China and Macau in the last 30 days.
Yang inferred “Norwegian is trying to send out the messages, ‘you are very welcome on board, and don’t worry, there will be no Chinese people”.
Yang alleged she contacted the Cruise line to learn about the policy and asked if she’d held a Canadian or American nationality, rather than Chinese, and traveled to China in the last four months, she would be given access to the ship. She said she was told yes.
Dr.Isaac Bogoch an infectious disease expert from Toronto University’s Health network held the policy is a blanket ban and lacks necessary evidence in terms of assessment of risks while targeting specific race.
Bogoch said, “The passport that one holds does not necessarily reflect the risk that one has of having this infection and transmitting this infection” he supposed “I don’t think it’s helpful at all to stigmatize individuals or an entire country”.
The company reflected the policy when asked about denying access to Yang and her from participating in family event.
Yang is no longer willing to travel on the cruise, even if she was allowed, and her family members and friends will all get reimbursements.
Yang said, “I really feel that the cruise ship owes an apology to us”.
A spokesperson for Sunwing Airlines clarified in a declaration that the airline was informed about the guideline on 10th Feb, and circulated it two days later either directly or indirectly.
The airline opposed the policy saying “We do not agree with this policy and have been advocating on behalf of Ming Yang and her family since we received the notification and will be offering the entire group the option to cancel with a full refund”.
More than 49,000 people have been suffering from coronavirus, known as COVID-19 by the WHO.–Worldwide News