NINETY-ONE Sarawakian expatriate workers, who have been stranded in Papua New Guinea since the middle of October, were flown home on a chartered flight last night.

They flew direct from Jacksons International Airport in Port Moresby to Kuching International Airport on a chartered Air Niugini Boeing 737 aircraft.

Their flight home was made possible by the intervention of Sarawak Transport Minister Lee Kim Shin.

The Sarawakians were among 106 Malaysians, including five Sabahans and 10 from the peninsula, whose employment contracts had ended and were trying to leave Papua New Guinea but could not do so due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Malaysians normally take a flight to Singapore before taking a connecting flight to a Malaysian airport, but this is not possible because Singapore has banned transit flights as part of its Covid-19 pandemic control measures.

There are also no direct flights from Papua New Guinea to Malaysia.

In desperation, one of the stranded Sarawakians then reached out to Lee on Facebook, asking him to help them get home.

In a statement, Lee said a Papua New Guinea travel agency had tried to assist the Malaysians by chartering an Air Niugini aircraft for a direct flight.

However, the original plan feel foul of Malaysian red tape, which resulted in the cancellation of three proposed flights – on November 13, 20 and 24 – because the Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia’s (CAAM) failed to validate the mandatory Foreign Aircraft Operators Certificate (FAOC).

Lee said the first thing he did was to contact Deputy Transport Minister Hasbi Habibollah, for assistance to get CAAM to expedite the validation of the FAOC, while he helped co-ordinate with the Sarawak disaster management committee to ensure a smooth entry of the stranded Malaysians into the state.

Flight PX9396 touched down at 8.50pm last night and all the passengers, including those from Sabah and the peninsula, are now in quarantine.

The stranded Malaysians were employed by 33 companies in the logging, retail and administrative sectors.

The Sarawakian who reached out to Lee – known only as ‘Sibuan’ – was so thankful to the minister that he wrote a letter of gratitude to Lee on behalf of his stranded countrymen.

“Without your kind and prompt assistance, we can’t imagine how the situation might unfold as there have been numerous postponements on this charter flight due to unforeseen circumstances,” he said. – December 18, 2020.