Sweden: Refugees and migrants to stay in great luxury on cruise ship
For decades, the luxury cruise ship has sailed in the Mediterranean. Now it may be going to the coast of Sweden, where wealthy cruise passenger will be replaced with refugees and migrants.
Sweden is close to signing an agreement with the US charter company US Ship Manager, which owns the cruise ship Ocean Gala. If an agreement is reached, the ship sets sail for Sweden, where it will serve as an asylum center.
Earlier, Sweden has housed asylum seekers in hotels and campsites, but the contracts are about to expire, and therefore they're going to be missing hundreds of beds for the many refugees and migrants coming to the country. The problem will now be partly solved the most expensive way possible - let's just hire a luxury cruiser.
- I am very happy. This means that we are prepared, so we do not risk ending up in a situation where we can not give people a roof over their head, says the head of the Swedish Migration Board, Willis Åberg, according to the newspaper Aftonbladet.
Although the number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden has declined in recent months and are now down to 700 a week, Sweden fears that the figure will rise again. In November last year, in just one week, 10,000 asylum seekers came to the country.
With room for 1,790 passengers, Ocean Gala was one of the world's largest cruise ships when it first sailed in 1982. The ship has among other places sailed between New York, the Bahamas and the Mediterranean. In December 2015, the ship was, however, turned into a floating luxury hotel, and is now docked near the town of Brest in France.
If the ship now sails to Sweden to house refugees depends on whether the cruise company can find a municipality that is willing to have the ship docked. The Migration Board's plan is that the ship should dock at the port Harnosand, which is 270 kilometers north of Stockholm.
The municipality, however, is highly sceptical.
If a place to dock the ship can't be found within two months, the contract is canceled.
On it's website, the Swedish Migration Board writes that more than 20,000 new places are needed in accommodation this spring.
- Just now the Swedish Migration Agency is able to provide accommodation for all new asylum-seekers. But we will still need more than 20 000 new places in accommodation in the spring – providing there is no drastic increase in the number of asylum-seekers, says Jan-Olov Wallin, Deputy Director of Operations.
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