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Stowaways found on world's most luxurious cruise


Hotelier Middle East Staff, May 12th, 2011

Nine Chinese immigrants have been busted attempting to sneak into New York after boarding one of the world's most luxurious cruise ships in Dubai.

According the The Daily Mail, the five women and four men arrived at the New York Cruise Terminal in Red Hook after a cruise on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 from Dubai.

The immigrants paid $3,000 to Fatt Kwee Wong, from Malaysia to smuggle them into New York. They also paid more than $500 for a cruise trip ticket each when they boarded the ship in Dubai. According to a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, the group bought tickets like everyone else in order to get onto the QM2 and all their names appeared on the passenger list.

This gave them access to all the ship’s facilities such as extravagant dining rooms, ballrooms, theatres, lounges, spas and the only Planetarium at sea.

Suspicions were aroused at the immigration checkpoint when Wong, carrying a Japanese passport, could not tell officials the names of his nine companions. His fingerprint records showed that he was wanted for smuggling immigrants into the North Atlantic island of Bermuda, court records said.