Coronavirus: Cruise ship dancers 'desperate to return to UK'

Dancers Joseph Harrison and Lauren Carrick were not allowed out of their cabin for three weeks

Cruise ship dancers who are among 950 crew trapped on a ship off the Bahamas have said they are desperate to return to their families in the UK.

Lauren Carrick and Joseph Harrison have been stuck in their cabin for at least 21 hours a day for 32 days.

The US Centre for Disease control has stopped the transfer of seafarers to its airports.

"We're not aliens. If the passengers have gone home, why can't we?" said Miss Carrick, who lives near Norwich.

Lauren Carrick and other crew have to wear masks during their time out of their cabins

The engaged couple had been performing on the Celebrity Cruises excursion around Florida and Mexico in March.

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Passengers disembarked in Miami, while the ship, with crew on board, was moved to Tampa, then a private island off the Bahamas.

For three weeks they were not allowed out of their cabins, with food and water delivered to their cabin door.

Joseph Harrison said they were fortunate to get a guest cabin with daylight and fresh air

"For 11 days after that, we were allowed out for meals only, so that meant being in the cabin for 21 hours a day," said Miss Carrick, 29, from Taverham.

Mr Harrison, 27, of Hull, said they had a guest cabin with a small balcony, but some were stuck in the crew's windowless quarters.

"I know people back home must think, 'a ship in the Bahamas, that's probably really nice' - it may sound lovely but we've been stuck in a room," he said.

"We want people to understand how much we really want to come home to our families. We'd feel safer back home."

The crew have been permitted to take a walk around the abandoned ship

Celebrity Cruises said it was in close co-ordination with government and health authorities and was grateful for their guidance.

The Foreign Office said it was doing everything it could to help British crew on board cruise ships but it was a "complex challenge during an unprecedented crisis".

"We are in direct contact with all of the main cruise ship operators, as well as with many crew members and their families," a statement said.

Jerome Mayhew, Conservative MP for Miss Carrick's Broadland constituency, said the government was working hard to remove the "nonsensical restrictions" that were keeping them on the cruise ship.

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