Five arrested for offering fake visas to stranded cruise ship passengers in Barcelona

The Spanish national police, the Ameripol, Interpol, and Bolivian law enforcement agents arrested five people in Bolivia for offering fake visas to 69 Bolivian nationals who planned to enter the EU last April on a cruise.

The MSC Armonia cruise from Brazil was stranded in Barcelona's port after 69 Bolivian nationals tried to enter the Schengen Area with fake visas. There were 55 adults and 14 children.

Local authorities banned everyone except four passengers from entering Spain. Those 65 passengers stranded were deported by plane days after arriving at Barcelona's port.

The four travelers - three siblings, two of whom are minors and the daughter of the older sibling - stayed in Catalonia because they had family connections in the territory.

Their parents live in Catalonia, and one of them has Spanish citizenship.

After docking in Barcelona on April 2, passengers were denied disembarking because they lacked valid visas. Some had requested asylum, but such petitions were not granted.

Police officers investigating the not-valid visas discovered five travel agencies allegedly linked to the scheme.

With a joint task force between law enforcement bodies, authorities identified managing positions of the travel agencies and arrested five people in Bolivia for allegedly manufacturing and delivering fake visas.

When the cruise ship was stranded in Barcelona, Bolivia's foreign ministry urged MSC to find an "immediate solution" as it was "their responsibility to check all the passengers' visas before boarding the boat." 

Meanwhile, the company announced that "it seemed all passengers had the required visas" before they boarded in South America.

"We have been informed by authorities that their visas are not valid to enter the Schengen area," MSC said in a statement back in April 2024. Due to the circumstances, the travelers "were not able to disembark in Barcelona, which was their final destination."