Preparations are afoot for the repatriation of about 120 Papua New Guineans from Indonesia's Papua Province to PNG's West Sepik province next week.
Vanimo harbour and airport. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
According to The National, authorities from the two countries were co-ordinating the repatriation as part of their emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
PNG's Emergency Controller David Manning said by next Thursday the first of 123 PNG citizens would leave Jayapura and cross the border to the northern town of Vanimo where Immigration officers will meet them.
Those being repatriated will be sent over in batches of 30 or 40, with authorities on both sides allowing a temporary opening of the border which has been closed for months.
Mr Manning said the initial 39 included dozens of people who served time in Indonesian prisons, mainly for illegal entry or visa breaches.
The citizens being repatriated are to be allocated a vacant property in Vanimo for quarantine over a period of 14 days before they can be released.
In PNG, health officials said there had been eight confirmed cases of Covid-19 to date.
In Papua province, Indonesia's health ministry had recorded 248 cases, and six deaths, as of Wednesday.
In the neighbouring Indonesian-administered province of West Papua, there were 53 cases and one death.