While their arrival in Sète was scheduled for Monday June 10 at 8:30 p.m., the passengers only reached their destination on Wednesday June 12 at 2 p.m. “We were supposed to leave on June 8. We went through all the procedures, passed all the checks, but ultimately we couldn’t board. Several hours later, we were told that there had been a fire,” said Isabelle, one of the passengers, to Free Midday.
Read: Angry MREs at the port of Sète (video)
The GNV company confirmed that its ferry “Le Majestic”, on which the passengers were to board, experienced “a technical breakdown on board which caused a fire to start, which was quickly managed and extinguished by the Company’s staff”. This situation forced passengers to wait 48 hours in a parking lot. “We had to fend for ourselves. People felt unwell. It was the members of the Mohammed V Foundation who gave us food. It was hell ! », denounces Isabelle.
“We were treated like cattle. GNV never communicated with us. And it was only after these long hours of waiting that we were able to sleep in a hotel, which like the others, was not informed of our arrival and had not planned anything,” fumes another passenger. Finally, the passengers boarded the Atlas ferry of the same company bound for Sète.
To read: MRE: In Sète, passenger lines to Morocco are a hit
For GNV, the version delivered by passengers is not accurate. “In accordance with the agreements signed by the company with the local authorities and in coordination with the Mohammed V Foundation, the passengers who were to board in Tangier were rerouted on the following trips (departing the next day) and were immediately taken care of by the company staff both for their immediate needs, such as water and comfort items, and for the allocation of a hotel room where they could spend the night before boarding their trip the next day “, she clarified.
To compensate for the inconvenience caused, the company offered passengers a 50% discount on their next trip. Some 70 passengers are reportedly preparing to file a collective complaint against GNV.
