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Australian performer Elke Uhd has spent years travelling the world with circus troupes, but is now stuck on a cruise ship with no way of knowing how and when she will be able to get home.
Key points:
- Police say Australians were allowed to get off cruise ships in Sydney
- But Elke Uhd says she was not given the option in the days before departure
- Her claim is backed by the cruise ship's operator, Carnival Australia
Through what appears to be a conspiracy of circumstance and miscommunication, she said she was not able to disembark the ship in Sydney, leaving her stranded in the Philippines more than 5,000 kilometres from home.
For several weeks Uhd — who is originally from the small WA town of Cowaramup — has been stuck on the Pacific Explorer as it travels further and further away from home soil during the global coronavirus pandemic.
"I have no idea when I am getting home or how," the 25-year-old said from the ship, currently docked in Manila Bay in the Philippines.
'They are lonely, they are frightened'
There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the Pacific Explorer.
But with very few others Australians on the ship, Uhd said she felt isolated and worried she may be asked to disembark in a foreign country amid the pandemic.
Her mother Jackie Uhd was also concerned and frustrated about the uncertainty of the situation.
"There's no way for her to get home that we can find," Mrs Uhd said.
"For the Australian crew … they are lonely, they are frightened, they don't have any family with them.
"They have no support and mentally it's hard to know that no-one wants you when you're sailing around in the middle of the ocean wondering how on earth they are ever going to get home."
Missed opportunity to disembark
Uhd boarded the ship, operated by P&O Cruises Australia, as a crew member in Sydney on March 13 to join the cast of the show Love Riot.
P&O Cruises Australia is operated by Carnival Australia, the organisation that represents Princess Cruises and the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship.
While flagged in the United Kingdom, Sydney is the Pacific Explorer's home berth.
Uhd performed just once as the cruise began its journey along the New South Wales coastline, before being told the ship's operations had been cancelled for 30 days.
She said the ship made its way back to Sydney, where passengers disembarked on March 16.
While some Australian crew disembarked at that point, Uhd elected not to.
The ship was safely docked in Sydney Harbour and she would have faced unemployment and have been in breach of her contract had she disembarked at that point.
She had no idea the ship would soon to be sent out of Australian waters, leaving it to navigate the complex global issue of getting its thousands of crew safely to their home countries.
Uhd said about a week after the ship docked at Sydney's White Bay, the captain advised staff that no-one was allowed on or off the vessel at the directive of "authorities".
It remains unclear to which authorities the captain was referring.
Then in early April, New South Wales Police Commissioner Michael Fuller ordered all cruise ships to leave NSW waters.
Crews given chance to disembark: police
A NSW Police spokeswoman said although the Pacific Explorer operated out of Sydney, it was a foreign flagged vessel whose port of origin was the United Kingdom.
She also said all Australian citizens were given the opportunity to disembark cruise ships before they departed.
"And to suggest otherwise is factually inaccurate. Those who chose not to or were considered essential crew for the vessel's operation remained on board," she said.
But Uhd was adamant that was not her understanding, and she said it was never clear to her she had the option to get off the ship immediately before it left Sydney.
She said she did not realise how quickly circumstances would change.
"Straight away the anchor was raised and we started making our way out. At that point, we didn't know what the next step was."
Just days earlier, on March 29, Australian Border Force (ABF) Commissioner Michael Outram had written to cruise ship operators with vessels in Australian waters, issuing them with a notice to leave.
Then at a press conference on April 7, he indicated those ships had the opportunity to apply for an exemption and a number of them had done so.
"On 4 April this year … I advised them that their requests were all denied. And as a result, they were all to direct their vessels to leave Australian waters as soon as they had been able to refuel and resupply," he said.
A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs said 48 crew disembarked the Pacific Explorer before it departed Sydney on April 2.
Company 'not aware' crew allowed off
The ABC asked a spokesman for the ship's operator Carnival Australia why Australian crew members were not given the opportunity to disembark before the ship was sent out of Sydney.
"It was a tumultuous period with a number of things happening at the same time and, given P&O Cruises' 88-year history in Australia, our preferred option was not to leave Australian waters," the spokesman, David Jones, said.
"However, we are not aware of any advice from NSW Police that Australian citizens could leave Pacific Explorer prior to it being ordered from Sydney Harbour and NSW waters on April 2."
Mr Jones said several days earlier, port officials had ordered the ship's gangways to be removed while it was docked at White Bay.
"We had not pursued crew disembarks at that time in the hope that this could be achieved later," he said.
The ship had no firm destination although was hopeful it could dock at a port in Queensland, but soon that option was closed off.
"Subsequent to leaving Sydney and sailing north towards Queensland, ABF issued the order for Pacific Explorer and other cruise ships to leave Australian waters, which meant there was no longer an opportunity for any crew transfer had we wished to do so," Mr Jones said.
He said many of the ABC's questions about the series of events could only be answered by "government authorities" as the order for the ship to leave was "theirs and theirs alone".
"This includes questions about the position of Australians who might have been on board at the time. We complied with directions for the ships to leave," he said.
Mr Jones would not elaborate on the plans to get the crew home, apart from saying the company was "keen" to ensure this happened and that discussions on the issue were "sensitive".
Alone and heading into the unknown
Uhd said she was being well cared for on board, but had been left in what she felt was a "dangerous position".
Uhd's current base is in Germany, but she said she would have tried to get home to WA.
She said had no idea when and where the ship would go next when the Filipino crew disembarked once their 14 days of quarantine was over.
There was a glimmer of hope this week when some crew were told they would be able to disembark and fly home from Manila, but that offer was extended only to some European, Canadian and British crew.
Uhd was desperately hoping she would be next, but for now has been largely confined to the four walls of her cabin as she waited anxiously for news of a safe passage home to Australia.
