I have never been on a cruise. It is not really my bag. But plenty of people that I know love them. I mention this because I wasn’t always aware of the inner workings of how it all works once onboard one of these floating cities. The most interesting thing that I learned was that all of these ships are staffed by people from other countries. And I mean every waiter, busboy, kitchen employee, maids, entertainment people, etc. All the people who are at your service, basically.
You don’t have to be a genius to know why. This is a cost-cutting measure. Hiring people from poorer countries who will be ecstatic to do the work, and to do it for lower wages that you can commonly pay people from other countries, which is considerably lower than what would be made in the US. The other reason centers around upward mobility. This is the job; there are no opportunities to move up or work your way into a leadership role. This is what you’re gonna do.
The numbers don’t lie! The demographic breakdown of cruise ship service employees shows that most frontline crew come from developing countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, with about 48 percent being Filipino. The workforce is predominantly male, with around 78 percent of frontline employees being men. The average age is about 30 years old. Most work under temporary contracts, often 2 to 11 months. Leadership remains less diverse, with most management coming from more developed nations.
So now that you know how it all works, we can discuss the bad news that occurred this week.
Multiple Disney cruise ship employees were detained by Customs and Border Protection agents in connection with a child sexual exploitation materials investigation, according to reports.
It has been reported that CBP detained 28 people after boarding eight different cruise ships docked in San Diego from April 23 to April 27.
“After boarding the vessels and interviewing 26 suspected crew members from the Philippines, one suspected crew member from Portugal, and one from Indonesia, officers confirmed that 27 of the 28 subjects were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing of CSEM or child pornography,” CBP said in a statement reported by both outlets.
The agency said that the people detained are being returned to their countries of citizenship after their visas were cancelled. One of the cruise ships boarded by authorities was a Disney ship.
Obviously, Disney was embarrassed by this. They put out a comment immediately.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement,” a spokesperson for Disney Cruise Line said in a statement. “While the majority of these individuals were not from our cruise line, those who were are no longer with the company.”
Passengers aboard the Disney Magic took a video of agents detaining multiple ship employees. I guess the arrests weren’t enough. Somebody felt they needed to record this for posterity.
