Samoa Stops Vanuatu USP Students
Vanuatu students were denied entry upon arrival at Faleolo International Airport on Tuesday, due to the failure of the Air Vanuatu flight crew to meet Samoa’s coronavirus health requirements, the caretaker Prime Minister has confirmed.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said the aircraft was bringing in students to attend the University of the South Pacific (USP) Samoa campus at Alafua, but none of the Air Vanuatu flight crew, including the pilots fulfilled the medical requirements for entry into Samoa.
“So if one of them is a carrier of the virus, the students whom they came with may have been affected,” he said during his weekly TV3 programme on Wednesday.
“I am happy that our border security is tough, we leave no chance for our Committee and front line workers to be blamed so we returned all of them to Vanuatu.
“It’s an action and message to be sent out to all the countries that we are in contact with and intend to fly to Samoa, to be vigilant. Even, the United States, we halted one of their flights not to come through here. This is the reason why we are still spared [from the virus], by standing by our restrictions and enforcing them.”
The Port Vila-based Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper reported that the students left the Vanuatu capital on Tuesday, but Samoa’s Ministry of Health refused to let the passengers disembark due to the flight crew not taking COVID-19 tests prior to travelling, Vanuatu’s Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Yvon Basil confirmed when contacted by the local newspaper.
Currently, Vanuatu has two active COVID-19 cases detected in one quarantine facility on March 6 which were transferred to an isolation ward. The country’s regulations require a standard 14-day quarantine for any incoming passengers, with COVID-19 testing on days five and eleven. Tuilaepa acknowledged the efforts of the National Emergency Operation Centre to keep Samoa safe.
“There is always empathy, but that is the same empathy that causes the lapses in decision making,” he said.
Under Samoa’s state of emergency orders, fines for airlines, cargo companies and fishing vessels that violate S.O.E. orders are $15,000.00 for the first offence and $20,000.00 per day for the continuation of the offence.
The country currently remains under an SOE which is being reviewed monthly by the caretaker Government. The latest extension was made on March 15 and will continue to April 11. On April 2 there will be an Australian Defense Force flight to Samoa which will do a two-hour refueling stopover before proceeding to the United States. The aircraft will have 21 crew members and no one will leave the plane during the refueling stop.
A repatriation flight from Australia is scheduled for April 3 and will bring overseas workers to work in the various Government ministries. There will also be a flight on April 16 and May 14 from Auckland, New Zealand as well as June 4 and 25 to repatriate R.S.E. workers currently in New Zealand.
The repatriation of Samoan nationals in the United States and Europe, which was scheduled for December 2020 will be operated by Fiji Airways and is currently scheduled for 26 April.
Samoa Observer