BANGKOK, 19 February: Passengers and crew of the Holland America Line cruise ship Westerdam cruise ship are now stranded in Cambodia after airlines refused to fly them home.
According to Kyodo News, the cruise ship docked at Sihanoukville port in Cambodia last weekend after being refused entry by five ports in Asia but only a few hundred of the 2,225 passengers were able to board flights out of Cambodia.
Prime Minister Hun Sen posted on his Facebook page on Monday that “medical check-ups of 500 multinational tourists found no positive signs of COVID-19 and are currently given temporary accommodation at Sokha Hotel in Phnom Penh.”
Troubles escalated for the ship’s passengers after Malaysia announced that a US woman who flew to Malaysia on Friday after disembarking from the Westerdam had tested positive for the virus on arrival in Kuala Lumpur.
Now questions are being raised over how the woman was infected, and whether authorities will now test all the 2,257 passengers and crew, who are in Phnom Penh or remain on the ship in Sihanoukville.
All other Holland America charter flights to Malaysia for the remaining Westerdam passengers were cancelled.
Cambodia and stakeholders, including the United States, have approached some airlines to fly them out and tried unsuccessfully to charter ones to Japan and Dubai, according to Kyodo News.
