KUCHING: The Sarawak government has assisted 106 Malaysians stranded in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to fly back to Kuching International Airport (KIA).
This was made possible through the efforts of Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin.
These Malaysians, comprising 91 Sarawakians, five Sabahans and 10 West Malaysians, were stranded in the foreign land beginning from the middle of October.
“They were working in PNG under 33 companies involving in different sectors such as logging, retailing service and office work. They wanted to come back to Malaysia as most of them had completed their employment contract.
“They used to transit in Singapore but currently Singapore does not allow transit due to Covid-19 pandemic control measurement. Therefore, the travel agency chartered an Air Niugini Limited’s direct flight from Port Moresby International Airport to KIA.
“However, the said flight was postponed several times from Nov 13 to Nov 20 and again to Nov 24 due to no approval regarding validation of Foreign Aircraft Operators Certificate (FAOC) from Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia (CAAM).
“This has resulted in some of the passengers being stranded in Port Moresby since Nov 19 and most of them got stranded across various provinces in PNG. These Malaysians have incurred thousands of dollars for daily expenses in PNG due to no confirmation of flight,” Lee said on Friday (Dec 18).
He pointed out that a Sarawakian known as Sibuan eventually sought his help by reaching his Facebook Messenger after knowing they were in a dead end.
With no time to waste, Lee said he immediately rendered assistance by liaising with Federal Deputy Minister of Transport to expedite CAAM on validation of FAOC for the chartered flight to fly directly to Kuching from PNG and also coordinated with Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to ensure smooth entry of the passengers into Sarawak.
Upon arrival in KIA at around 8.50pm on Dec 17, they (106 persons) were placed at designated quarantine centre according to the latest standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by SDMC.
On behalf of all Malaysians landed at Kuching, Sibuan expressed his heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the minister and his team for their help to smooth up the charter flight.
“Firstly, I would like to thank you sincerely Datuk Lee for helping us to liaise with CAAM when Air Niugini had some difficulties applying for FAOC.
“Secondly, we especially appreciate what you and your team have done for us by liaising with SDMC on getting all Malaysian passengers coming back to Malaysia from PNG and vice versa. Many of us faced difficulties and issues when applying Enter Sarawak and you and your team had really helped us a lot by guiding and liaising with SDMC in order to get all of our applications approved in time.
“Without your kind and prompt assistance, we can’t imagine how the situation might unfold as there have been numerous postponement on this charter flight due to unforeseen circumstances,” Sibuan said in a letter to the state transport minister.
Lee, on his part, also recorded his thanks to Federal Minister of Transport and his deputy for their fast response pertaining to his request on validation of the FAOC and dealing with PNG’s airline, apart from praising SDMC for their swift action in handling all the application of enter Sarawak Permit and arranging the precautionary SOP measures in handling the106 passengers from PNG.
