Filipino crew in Italian ship tragedy recount ordeal

MARICRIS Millares had been working for Costa cruises for eight years when, on the night of January 13, the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized just off the coast of the Isola del Giglio.

A 30-year old Filipina cabin stewardess, Millares was one of a crew of one thousand on board (together with 3,200 passengers). Almost half were from Indonesia (170) and the Philippines (296).

Their ordeal was compounded by the fact that many of them had to spend several days being put up in a hotel at Rome airport. Millares says she was several days without documents, money, clothes or even shoes, before priests from the Sant’Egidio Community arrived to help her.

Without passports or money, they “could not leave the hotel they were booked in,” the ambassador of the Philippines to the Holy See, Mercedes Tuason, pointed out.

Cruise ship workers regularly consign their documents to ship officials. According to Millares, “they are kept by the crew purser who is in charge of our needs.”

In a statement on January 15, the owners of the Costa Concordia said it was clear “that the crew of the Costa Concordia acted bravely and swiftly to help evacuate more than 4,000 individuals during a very challenging situation. We are very grateful for all they have done.”

However, they had left the ship with “nothing else beyond their clothes,” said Father Paolo Cristiano, a Rome-based priest who oversees the Sant’Egidio Community’s work in the Philippines.

Report from ucanews.com