Spain will deport on Thursday more than 60 Bolivians who arrived last week on a cruise ship in the northeastern port of Barcelona but were barred from disembarking because of forged visas, AP News reports.
The Spanish government office in Barcelona said 65 of the 69 arriving Bolivians would be sent by plane to the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. MSC Cruises will pay for the plane, which owns the ship on which they arrived from Brazil.
Four Bolivians who have Spanish relatives will be allowed to enter Spain.
Spanish authorities said the Bolivian passengers had fake visas to enter Europe’s Schengen zone, which includes 29 European countries and does not require document checks.
Because of the Bolivians’ visa problems, a cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 passengers was stranded in Barcelona for two days and was unable to continue its Mediterranean itinerary until the situation was resolved. The cruise ship departed after the Bolivians were temporarily housed on another ship while police conducted checks.
MSC Cruises said last week that the Bolivian passengers’ documents were correct when they boarded in Brazil. The case could signal a lesser-known irregular migration route from Latin America to Europe. The cost of a similar cruise ship journey starts at around 1,000 euros ($1,086), according to a specialised website.
