18 August 2020

Seventy -six Papua New Guineans who were stranded in the   Asia region were repatriated home on two  government chartered Air Niugini flights organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

The first chartered flight arrived on Sunday 16 August from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  with 36 nationals on board.

The citizens were scattered throughout South East Asia: three were in Bangladesh, four in Thailand, one  each from   South Korea,  Cambodia, Hongkong and the rest were Oil Search trainers based  in Malaysia.

Another chartered flight from Shanghai, China had 40 stranded citizens on board which arrived in the country on Monday, 17 August 2020.

On board the  Port Moresby -Shanghai leg of the  flight were five PNG Embassy Staff including the  the Ambassador designate to China.

The two charters now complete repatriation exercises in Asia except for India and Philippines.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAT)  is  planning another charter into Manila to uplift the remaining citizens.

Meanwhile there are currently 22  stranded citizens across India, however, due to total lockdown in India, domestic travel by citizens to New Delhi  (capital city) has been difficult.

The DFAIT COVID-19 Team is maintaining constant communication with the stranded citizens to get them out of India soon.

Some of the stranded citizens arriving at Jackson’s International Airport from Shanghai on Government funded Chartered flight on August 17 (photo credit: DFAT)[/caption]