More than 100 people attempting to flee the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas have been kicked off a ferry headed to Florida for not having a US visa. 

Around 130 Bahamian evacuees boarded the ferry in Freeport, Grand Bahama on Sunday night to head to shelter in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after withstanding several days of limited food, water and power on the island. 

But they were forced off the boat before it set sail after the crew suddenly announced it would not take any passengers seeking refuge without a US visa, according to local media reports. 

Current US policy allows Bahamian residents travelling to America by air to enter the country without a visa as long as they have a passport and proof that they do not have a criminal record. 

This had been extended to allow arrivals by boat amid warnings the devastated country could suffer a major humanitarian crisis. 

Hundreds of hurricane survivors queued for several hours to board the ferry, operated by Balearia Caribbean, to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday evening. 

But before the ship departed a loudspeaker announcement called for "any person that doesn’t have a US visa please proceed to disembark", leaving passengers frustrated and confused. 

Footage obtained by a local Florida TV network showed large crowds of people disembarking the ship to return to the storm-ravaged island.

One female passenger told South Florida network WSVN: "They originally said you can come with a police record and without a visa and now they’re taking that back… That’s really ridiculous. That’s awful". 

Another passenger, Renard Oliver, travelling with his young daughter told the network that ferry’s crew members claimed they had received a call from the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) stating that anyone without a US visa would have to "come off" the vessel. 

However representatives for the CBP denied the claims, insisting it was a "business decision" on Balearia’s part. 

Stephen Silvestri, the CBP’s acting port director, told WSVN: "If those folks did stay on the boat and arrived we would have processed them, vetted them and worked within our laws and protocols and done what we need to do to facilitate them. I think it was a business decision by Balearia to remove them, they were not ordered off the boat by any government entity."

In an official statement, the agency said it was "supporting the humanitarian mission… [and] continues to process the arrivals of passengers evacuating from the Bahamas according to established policy and procedures". 

The agency also highlighted that just the day before another cruise ship transported nearly 1,500 hurricane victims to Palm Beach, Florida without issue.     

A spokeswoman for Balearia said: "We regret and apologise for the hardship and inconvenience experienced by the 119 passengers who are residents from Grand Bahama Island who could not be transported.

"We boarded these passengers with the understanding that they could travel to the United States without visas, only to later having been advised that in order to travel to Ft. Lauderdale they required prior in-person authorisation from the immigration authorities in Nassau."  

Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas last Sunday as a Category 5 storm, killing at least 46 people on the island nation.

However it is feared the final death toll may be far higher, with several areas left completely inaccessible to rescue teams.

Several of Florida’s state officials, including senator Marco Rubio, have called for urgent US assistance in the Bahamas.

Last week Mr Rubio travelled to the region to survey the damage and requested that the United States Agency for International Development dispatch the USNS Comfort to deliver aid. 

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