Ferry Passengers Protest Delays at French Port of Sète, Forcing Police Intervention

At the heart of the anger of the passengers of a Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) ship from Tangier is the delay and a broken promise. According to statements from some passengers, the ship left Morocco with a lot of delay, and therefore could not dock at the port of Sète within the indicated deadlines. The constraints related to the Covid-19 health crisis would have caused this delay, reports midilibre.fr.

The company imposed an antigen test on all unvaccinated passengers or those who had received a vaccine not authorized in France. While it was the firefighters of the Sdis 34 who were in charge of the tests, it was the Biomed34 laboratory that took over, causing the delay. One of the passengers indicated that the GNV company had promised a 50% refund of the ticket price following this significant delay. "But the captain went back on this promise and refuses to issue the necessary certificates to get a refund. This is what set the powder on fire," he specified.

After a turbulent night on Wednesday between some passengers and the ferry managers, the atmosphere remained tense on Thursday night. Several dozen people still refused to disembark without being refunded. The atmosphere was so tense that it was riot police and firefighters from the Sdis 34 who were called in to the rescue.