PNG men who were adrift at sea released from hospital

Transcript

Two Papua New Guinea men who spent five months adrift at sea in a small boat have been released from hospital in the Federated States of Micronesia.

54-year-old Michael Bolong and 28-year-old Ambros Wavut left Lihir Island in PNG's New Ireland in mid-July, but ran out of fuel and were caught in a storm.

They say they survived on rainwater and fish, but a third man, Francis Dimansol, died from what are described as severe health conditions.

The Assistant Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the FSM Government, Carl Apis, says the men were rescued by a Micronesia-flagged fishing vessel last week, and arrived in Pohnpei on Saturday.

Mr Apis told Jamie Tahana that the men are in good health, and work is now underway to repatriate them.

CARL APIS:  They are healthy and fit to be discharged.  We are glad to report that they are fine now.  With the assistance of the International Organisation for Migration, they were released to them and then in co-ordination with other NGOs such as the Salvation Army, we have provided housing for them.  The community is donating food and clothing.  We are also very grateful to the hospital staff, the doctors and nurses who donated food and clothing as well as their time for them to call long distance and connect to their families in Papua New Guinea.  Right now we're working with the government of Papua New Guinea.  We've requested for their assistance with the repatriation of the two nationals.  We have not received a response yet but we have made the request.  Based on informal communications between our national police force, the authorities in PNG are trying to contact the families to verify the information before we can move forward.

JAMIE TAHANA:  OK.  But you are still waiting for that official response from PNG?

CA:  Yes.

JT:  How long do these kind of things take?  When would you expect them to be repatriated?

CA:  Well, based on previous cases, we've always tried to expedite that as soon as possible but they can go from a week to two weeks for a repatriation to be made.  We need first, again, confirmation from the home country and also we need to work with the neighbouring countries to have them transit without any travel documents.

JT:  What have they said about their experience at sea?

CA:  They're actually being interviewed for us to get more details.  I've asked and I'm waiting for the information to come back to us on how did they get lost at sea in the first place.  Based on some information I've come across there is usually some of the islands around Rabaul they have to transport back and forth on boats and sometimes these boats get lost at sea, whether it's engine problems and so forth but that's based on communications I've come across between on national police, ours and PNGs.  They suspect that that's the cause but we are waiting for that information from the two drifters themselves.

JT:  So they've been put up on Salvation Army housing and been gifted clothes and food and stuff?

CA:  We're really grateful for the community because we don't have regular budget although it's almost yearly that we pick up people at sea.  We would have a case or two each year, mostly have drifted in from the east, from Kiribati, but this time it's coming from the west in PNG.  We don't have regular budgets for it so we always call on the NGOs and the community to assist them.  We're really grateful that they're able to support us.

JT:  As you mention, these kinds of drifting cases aren't too rare, on the scale of things, this five month thing from PNG, how long is that?

CA:  Actually this is long.  With the conditions of our oceans, I'm sure for them it feels much longer.