The sudden death of RSE worker Fuifui Kula ‘o Lofakaitamaki ‘Ealelei in New Zealand has added a huge burden to the already complex and overloaded difficulties facing the RSE program, and RSE workers from Tonga.
Also known as Muni ‘Ealelei, the 36-year-old died on Sunday 16 May in his sleep at the workers’ accommodation at Mr. Apple NZ in Hastings, Hawkes Bay. Initial medical diagnosis was that he had a heart attack, another term for his heart stopping. But Muni’s aunty in Tonga, Sofoni Fakahua who raised him, said he had pneumonia, when she talked with him by phone when he was sick.
Sofoni said the family is expecting Muni’s body to be brought home. His estranged wife Siu and their two children are in Tongatapu awaiting the arrival of Muni’s body, expected for next week.
He was supposed to return to Tonga but the travel ban and the endless delays in repatriation flights kept him, as well as many other RSE workers in New Zealand.
News have also reached New Zealand that the Tongan Government will be charging levies for repatriation beginning next month. Quarantine charges for 21 days will no longer be covered by the Government but will be paid by individual returnees. That can run to about $4000 pa’anga for 21 days.
The question is whether Government is seriously suggesting that RSE workers who have asked to be repatriated last year, and could not, through no fault of their own, will now be further punished by being charged?
It has been sometime that RSE workers who were due to be repatriated have been held back by delays and no availability of seats on flights. This should not have happened as Government has clearly stated that there was a priority for RSE workers on those flights. However, there are evidences of corruptive practice in others grabbing seats meant for RSE workers, so they can return home.
Some who had only been contracted for 7 months have continued to be held back in New Zealand for up to a year or more. The social problems encountered by those who could not return home have been described by employers and officers of the RSE program as “tragic”. The long separation from families have left quite a number of RSE workers in serious mental distress.
To make matters worse, four of the RSE workers have absconded and left their job sites in recent weeks. Their whereabouts are unknown. A source from the work place said there will be more as it is becoming obvious to some of the RSE workers that there is no advocacy for them from within Government, and in particular the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), which oversees the program.
The view from New Zealand from RSE workers is that the Tongan Government has abandoned them or at least only give lip service while nothing is being done to resolve their plight. Much of the blame is focused on the Minister of MIA, and especially the CEO, Dr. Fotu Fisi’iahi, who seemed very distant and disinterested in what happens to the RSE workers.
On the one hand, Government relies on remittances and RSE provides remittances and employment for upwards of 6000 workers annually, and they are treated like nothing.
Questions continue to be raised, as to why can’t Government do something, even with help offered by employers, to fly the workers home, and provide quarantine service for them? There is an estimate of just over 1000 workers yet to be repatriated from both New Zealand and Australia.
What can Government do to help solve the social and family problems created by the repatriation delays?
With New Zealand begging for the use of migrant workers to help harvest their fruit crops, and to even raise the minimum pay, why is Government slow in utilizing this opportunity for further employment of those involved in labour mobility?
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