Part of Australia’s foreign aid is Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme which allow Tongans (and other Pacific Islanders) to work on farms and other industries in Australia where there is a worker shortage. It is being supplemented by the new Australian Agricultural Visa needed because Pommie backpacker visas no longer have the requirement to work in agriculture
Foreign temporary workers are desperately missed at the moment with farmers unable to harvest crops in this hermit kingdom.
(CNN)The South Pacific island nation of Tonga went into lockdown on Tuesday, following the discovery of the country’s first Covid case since the start of the pandemic.
The Tongan government ordered a weeklong lockdown for the main island Tongatapu, which includes an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew with residents told to stop work and stay inside their homes for all but essential reasons, according to the health ministry.
Public transport will be halted, restaurants, bars and clubs will close, schools and churches will also shut their doors and social distancing will be enforced.
The restrictions may sound heavy handed for a nation with only one confirmed Covid case, but until a few days ago, Tonga was one of only a small number of countries not to report a single Covid infection since the virus was detected in late 2019.
Like other Pacific island nations, Tonga’s early actions in declaring a state of emergency in March 2020 and shutting its borders to foreign nationals protected it from Covid outbreaks that could have devastated the country. Some 22.1% of the population live below the national poverty line and medical facilities and equipment are limited.
That’s why when a passenger who had traveled from New Zealand tested positive last Wednesday, it spurred thousands of people to get vaccinated and prompted warnings from officials to expect pandemic restrictions.
The infected traveler arrived in Tonga having flown from Christchurch on a repatriation flight, according to New Zealand’s Health Ministry. The passenger was fully vaccinated, had tested negative in New Zealand prior to the flight’s departure, and was discovered among travelers staying at a hotel used for managed isolation and quarantine for new arrivals into the country.
The other 214 passengers on the flight tested negative on arrival and are completing a 21-day quarantine, the online news site reported.
