By Martha Taumata Faavae
The highly publicized plight of stranded Falealili RSE workers in New Zealand already has the local authorities keeping watch of contract workers from Samoa on the move to fly them home.
More than a 100 workers are in the village working group and the New Zealand media reported last week that they are anxious, depressed and angry at not knowing when they can come home to Samoa.
Economic Minister, Lautafi Selafi Purcell, responsible for the RSE programme has been close watch of the situation and is at the head of the planning for their return.
“Organising to bring them home involves negotiations with the New Zealand Government, it’s not as simple as just putting them on a flight home,” Lautafi patiently explained.
“The problem is we have only one flight approved for the week but they have requested a chartered flight and we’re now working on it with a date to be confirmed.”
Lautafi confirmed a Cabinet plan that as soon as the group arrives they will be housed inside the Poutasi village hall for quarantine.
The isolation treatment will follow the same procedures observed for all the other arrivals located in quarantine sites around Apia.
“The village quarantine option is a good one for them rather than having to hunt around Apia for a suitable location to place them.
“The normal police and health security personnel will be assigned to keep watch on them including the presence of the chiefs and orators of the village – who better to rely on for that job than the village leadership authority?”
The Minister is confident of the Poutasi quarantine success whereas for the other RSE group workers booked for the fortnightly flights, the returns numbers have increased since the passengers have increased to 300 per flight.
Lautafi admitted the struggle for suitable sites to quarantine 300 arrivals per flight.
“We’re trying to control the numbers flying in because it would be a serious situation when 300 people arrive while the other 300 who came before are yet to complete their quarantine period of isolation.
“It’s possible we could end up sending some to be isolated in Savaii if we run into that kind of problem here in Apia.”
The Falealili working group of 117 is included in 1500 workers from the islands in New Zealand with the Samoans working for a company farm in Hastings.
The New Zealand media quoted one of the Samoan workers, Uiti Lagavale, who said the uncertainty of not knowing when they can leave for home was taking its toll on the men.
“When can we get home? Some of the men, they have already lose hope. They are very stressed.”
The New Zealand media reported finding one of the Samoan groups trying to cope with the cold winter conditions.
This was their first experience of winter and many had six to ten layers of clothing on to keep warm, Lagavale was quoted as saying by the local media.
