The cruise ship Silja Europa, which is to receive a thousand asylum seekers in Velsen-Noord, is ready to depart from Tallin as of today. But “that does not mean that it is already known whether and when the ship can dock at Velsen,” a spokesperson for the municipality said. In this way, the municipality still has a hand in hand, while the ship really seems to be arriving.
The reception of a thousand asylum seekers on a cruise ship has hitherto encountered many problems resistance from Velsen-North. At the end of June, residents of the village announced the arrival of the ship to Mayor Frank Dales on a walk-in evening not much to see.
Last week, entrepreneurs on and around the VOB quay, along which the ship is to be moored, also contributed. “A possible influx of people on the ship is very difficult to link to heavy transport and company equipment here on the industrial estate”, local entrepreneur Gerrit de Vries said at the time. to know NH News.
COA, the municipality and Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) would also not communicate with the entrepreneurs, De Vries and others at the business park said.
All set in motion to dock the ship
Despite the criticism, the three organizations seem put everything into operation in order to be able to lay the Silja Europa safely at the Velsen-Nordic VOB quay as quickly as possible.
The aim was initially to start the reception on 1 September. It remains to be seen whether that date will be met. A late start would not affect the end date of the crisis shelter: COA and the municipality have recently maintained that the end date is fixed on 1 March next year.
At the moment RWS working on making the quay suitable. A number of studies and work are required for this. ‘For the sake of speed’, RWS now does those two things at the same time. Last week, NH showed how the quay was checked for the possible presence of explosives from the Second World War.
“What happens to the ship after we deliver it to the port of Tallinn, the COA team has to explain and answer”
While RWS continues to work, the Tallink shipping company is now delivering the sea cruise ship Silja Europa in Tallinn. The ship is ready for departure from the port of the Estonian capital from today, reports a spokeswoman for shipping company Tallink Grupp. In doing so, she nuances the earlier announcement that ‘the Silja Europe will leave for the Netherlands on 20 August’.
The spokeswoman: “What happens to the ship after we deliver it here in the port of Tallinn as agreed is something the COA team will have to explain and answer.”
But a spokesperson for the COA was unable to give any clear information at the moment due to the overwhelming pressure at the organization. The municipality of Velsen could already say that a progress letter will be sent to the city council ‘next week’.
Seven days?
Although the various parties are unable or unwilling to say anything about the travel time of Silja Europa from Tallinn to Velsen-North, the journey will probably not take much longer than a week. By way of comparison: the so-called Baltic Sea Cruise with sea cruise ship Norwegian Prima from Norwegian Cruise Line, with three intermediate stops, takes seven days to sail from Amsterdam to Tallinn.
The Silja Europa is easy to follow. Here anyone can easily see where the ship is at any time.