Papua New Guinea - Two fishermen, a student and a shopkeeper from the Autonomous Republic of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have returned safely to their homes after an arduous journey, during which they were lost in Pacific waters for weeks with little hope of survival.

They set off from their village in Bougainville in early August on a fishing trip, in a party of six in a dinghy, but soon found themselves drifting into the open ocean after an engine failure midway through their trip.

After drifting in the Pacific for almost a month, on 3 September, the Marine Wing of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) found the boat with four fishermen in Micronesian waters, amazingly in fairly good health, having survived on rainwater and fish in the open ocean. The other two passengers jumped off the boat somewhere in PNG waters and attempted to swim to land. Their fate remains unknown.

After the rescue the survivors were transferred into IOM Micronesia and the Salvation Army’s care, where they underwent medical and nutrition checks and received food, shelter and other assistance.

Following active inter-governmental coordination and with support from IOM missions in FSM and PNG, the IOM Humanitarian Assistance to Stranded Migrants fund (HASM) was used to allow the rescued fishermen to begin their journey home.

John Bosco, Howard Kopen, George Rumina and Elijah Tsora could not be happier to be back in Papua New Guinea. However, their immense joy and gratitude to be alive and back at home was tainted by the fact that only four of the initial six fishermen made it back safely.

“We were lost at sea, our souls turned from hopeful, to sad, depressed, and desperate as we felt abandoned and forgotten and kept on drifting with no direction in the middle of the ocean defying hunger, thirst, heat, strong winds and rough seas,” said John Bosco.

“We felt lost especially when our two brothers jumped off the dinghy holding a wooden panel in the hope of swimming, and reaching land to alert others to come and rescue us. But they vanished in the ocean. We are immensely happy to be alive and back at home and can’t express how thankful we are for the help received from IOM and the local authorities in FSM and PNG to facilitate our return home, but we can’t forget our brothers who are not here with us today.”

After arriving at the airport, they received a civic reception in Port Moresby. The survivors were transferred to an IOM transit facility and then on to their home village in Bougainville. 

Although primary responsibility for the repatriation of stranded migrants rests with national governments, there are many instances where additional assistance is required.  HASM was established in 2005 to allow IOM to respond globally as a provider of last resort to urgent requests from national governments and to assist with the repatriation of stranded migrants. Since 2007, the HASM has helped 17 PNG drifters return home from the FSM. 

For further inquiries, please contact Stuart Simpson at IOM FSM, Tel: +(691) 9262460), Email: ssimpson@iom.int. Or George Gigauri at IOM Papua New Guinea, Tel: +(675) 73200136, Email: ggigauri@iom.int.