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The Indian Embassy in Papua New Guinea (PNG) denied the police’s claim that it helped unauthorized passengers (including four people infected with COVID-19) to reach Port Moresby, the capital of the Pacific nation.
Tuesday’s denial was made after Papua New Guinea’s police chief David Manning banned all flights from India last week, accusing the Indian government of “deliberately” participating in “deception” activities that endanger the security of the island nation.
The chief of police responsible for PNG’s response to COVID-19 also banned Indonesia’s Garuda Airlines and Hong Kong’s charter company CapaJet from using the country’s airspace “until further notice.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Papua New Guinea’s borders are closed to most travelers, but Manning said that the country allows repatriation flights to transport 81 passengers from the Indian capital of New Delhi to Port Moresby under strict conditions, including COVID-19 Take a negative test-19.
However, when Garuda Airlines flight GA7610 arrived on August 17, the chief of police claimed that it was carrying three passengers who were not authorized to travel to Papua New Guinea.
He also said that the Indian government allows some passengers to board without a negative COVID-19 test. He said: “This failure means that the flight brought four people infected with COVID-19 into Papua New Guinea.”
Manning said that through these actions, India undermined the trust of a friendly country.
“India must respect Papua New Guinea as a sovereign country and must not participate in acts involving illegal people, violate our laws, and undermine public health and safety measures.”
The Indian Embassy denied these allegations.
“All foreign passengers on the plane to Port Moresby hold a valid SOE [State of Emergency] Approval, Covid PCR test and vaccination certificate,” the delegation said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
“Passengers can only get tickets after they have been approved by SOE, which is in line with the prescribed guidelines set by the treasurer.”
It also provided documents, including a flight manifest listing 84 passengers and a certificate issued by the PNG government that approved the entry of all 84 passengers.
CapaJet-a charter flight on Garuda Airlines-also denied Manning’s allegations.
“We work with embassies around the world and understand capacity and quotas and everything else very well. This is part of our standard operating procedures,” said Jay Wan, CapaJet’s Director of Operations.
“No one on the flight is not on the manifest. They know the names of everyone who is coming because we wrote a letter to David Manning to ensure that all entry conditions and PCR results for all passengers are respected. He agreed that day, and his answer was very clear. If the passengers do not get their approval, we will not allow them to board the plane.”
Wan said he was disappointed by Manning’s behavior, especially because CapaJet helped repatriate several PNG diplomats on the same flight “for free”.
Former Papua New Guinea diplomat Adam Delaney is currently completing his doctoral studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. He described Manning’s statement as a diplomatic error.
“This is not something you did lightly-publicly criticizing the countries that have been Papua New Guinea’s very good partners, India and Indonesia, for their actions are deceptive. This problem needs to be resolved very urgently,” Delaney said.
“This shows that Manning is under a lot of pressure. The national COVID-19 controller is unable to complete its work due to severe manpower and financial shortages. As a result, the health problem has become a diplomatic issue when it shouldn’t have arisen.”
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