Montreal launches cruise season with ship that protected 1,500 Ukrainian refugees
Cruise ship Staff Capt. Rakesh Prasad can’t forget the traumatized expressions on the faces of hundreds of Ukrainians who boarded Holland America’s Volendam in April 2022.
The 1,500 refugees, who had fled their homeland two months earlier after Russia’s invasion triggered an ongoing war there, boarded the ship with their scant possessions largely packed in plastic bags. The ship they boarded at the Port of Rotterdam would be their home for the next six months.
“You looked at the kids, you could feel how afraid they were, there was no happiness,” said Prasad, standing by the Volendam’s indoor pool after the ship docked at the Port of Montreal on Saturday.
Full story Montreal launches cruise season with ship that protected 1,500 Ukrainian refugees
