Cruise lines don’t vet their crew members. The foreign flagged, foreign incorporated cruise industry delegates the obligation to third-party foreign hiring agents to try and screen the applicants. Countries like Indonesia, India, and the countries in the Caribbean & Central America have no computerized electronic database of criminals, sex offenders, or pedophiles which can be carefully cross referenced with social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and passport numbers. There is no infrastructure in a place like Nicaragua or Goa to search to make certain that the prospective employee isn’t a sociopath. There are no U.S. HR specialists involved. It’s a random, unsophisticated, “hit-or-miss” task conducted (or not) by hiring agents far-far-away who make money when they place people from around the world on U.S. based cruise ships. The system is often based on bribery. Falsification of a resume is not only a common practice, it’s often required by the cruise lines’ hiring agents. Think your cabin attendant is carefully screened? No country in Central America or the Far East has a state-of-the-art database tied to someone’s criminal history. If a pedophile shows up with a certificate from who knows where that he is not a criminal, he’s welcome aboard.
