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Norwegian Cruise Line cancels all trips to Tunisia
Norwegian Cruise Line ships will no longer stop at Tunisian ports after a number of its passengers on Norwegian Jade were prevented from disembarking in Tunis this week.
The passengers, who were all Israelis, were not allowed off the ship at the Port of La Goulette on Sunday.
Kevin Sheehan, CEO of Miami-based Norwegian said: "In response to this discriminatory act, Norwegian Cruise Line announced today that it has cancelled all remaining calls to Tunisia and will not return.
"We want to send a strong message to Tunisia and ports around the world that we will not tolerate such random acts of discrimination against our guests.
"We are outraged by this act and the fact that we were not notified in advance of this practice."
An official at Tunisia’s tourism ministry said the visitors were prevented from disembarking because they did not have visas.
The interior ministry said that 14 tourists were not allowed into Tunisia because they "did not meet the legal conditions for entering our country."
It did not specify their nationalities or elaborate further.
The Norwegian Jade had scheduled stops in Tunisia for trips to the ancient city of Carthage during an 11-night Western Mediterranean cruise from Rome. The next cruise departs on March 22 and there are two more planned, one departing on April 12 and the other on December 23.
The cruises on March 22 and April 12 will now stop in Palma in Majorca instead, and next winter the ship will spend an extra day at sea instead of the stop at Tunisia.
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Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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