Pacific

Vanuatu repatriation second phase continues

17:24 pm on 18 August 2020

A New Zealand Air Force plane is returning 119 citizens and residents to Vanuatu today as part of the country's second repatriation phase.

Vanuatu's main international airport Bauerfield at Port Vila Photo: RNZI/Beverley Tse

The majority of passengers are seasonal workers who had been stranded in New Zealand due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Today's repatriation exercise includes the body of the country's late High Commissioner, Johnson Naviti, who died in Wellington recently.

Mr Naviti was also a High Chief from Emae Island in Shefa Province.