Discussions on citizens returning from abroad

There have been suggestions to repurpose a hotel to quarantine Papua New Guineans who have been abroad.

This is one of the ideas under discussion by the Government.

Over 300 Papua New Guineans who are abroad want to return home. Some of them went overseas for medical reasons or events and were unable to return due to PNG’s ban on international flights.

In a recent COVID-19 update, Police Minister Bryan Kramer said the government is looking at all options, especially when 306 Papua New Guineans have registered to come back.

“So we are able to confirm what the quantity is then we’ll look at the facilities that we have currently to be able to facilitate their return,” Kramer said.

“For quarantine, discussions are with the Prime Minister and other business houses to repurpose a hotel. They’ll have to do a test before they come in-country. Once in-country then they will be quarantined in another hotel that will be basically ring-fenced with security personnel, medical personnel to ensure that they serve out their 14 days.

“Then they will be tested; two tests. One comes back negative, next 24 hours, a second test. If both tests come back negative, and on that basis, they will be released back into the community. So the details are still being worked out at this stage. Once we confirm that we will release that information to the public.”

The police minister said among those registered to come back were 116 Papua New Guineans in Australia and 64 prisoners in Indonesia.

“13 citizens in Singapore, 20 in Malaysia, one in Japan, four in Thailand, Bangkok, four in Fiji, one in Solomon Islands, four in New Caledonia, one in Vanuatu, one in Spain, one in Paris, 11 in the Philippines and there’s a few others in the UK – I don’t have the information – but in total, we have about 306 citizens throughout the globe who have registered or expressed an interest to come back.”

Author: 
Carmella Gware