Gay cruise ship stopped from docking in Morocco

RSVP Vacations

An all-gay cruise ship with 2,100 people aboard has been turned away from Morocco.

According to holiday company RSVP Vacations, which specialises in organising trips for gay and lesbian holidaymakers, tourist officials prohibited a scheduled entry to the port of Cascablanca, despite having previously agreed to the ship docking there.

Same-sex relationships are unlawful in Morocco: offenders can spend up to three years in jail, reports the International Business Times.

The Holland-America cruise ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, was supposed to include a 12-hour stop in Morocco as part of a week-long cruise. Passengers had booked to visit the Hassan II Mosque as well as several market places in the capital, but instead, the ship was forced to dock in the southern Spanish port of Malaga, reports Fox News.

Despite the claims by the company, Morocco's tourism minister Lahchen Haddad denied that the ship was prevented from docking. Speaking to news organisation Reuters, he said: "We don't ban cruise ships here and we never ask our visitors about their sexual preferences."

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