Dozens of i-Kiribati seamen who are stuck in Fiji want to get home.
Photo: RNZI / Mary Baines
The group of 161 seamen have been isolating in Fiji since early April and are desperate for help from their government.
The seamen, who work with international shipping agencies, have been out of work for months.
For many years, Kiribati has been training men to work as crew for foreign shipping companies and the income they earn has become a major economic resource for the couantry.
A spokesman for the stranded seamen, Tekemau Kiraua, who often captains freighters around the Pacific, said the agency that had been employing the men continued to meet their costs for accommodation and food, but that the seamen need more.
He has called on the government to re-institute the small payments that were being made to other stranded i-Kiribati seamen last year.
Kiraua said this money would cover basic needs like toothpaste, soap and bottled water.
But he said ideally they would like help to get home to their families.
"I plead with them that they might send us home so we can feed our families by going fishing," he said.
"We have no money. We are sitting down like dead people. We are useless for our families, which are the main jobs for us, the men in the families, providing for our families, especially on the island."
Kiribati President, Taneti Maamau Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koro Vaka'uta
The men had some savings when they arrived but that ran out long ago, and Kiraua said they were experiencing headaches over how they could feed their families.
Kiraua said the seamen were grateful for the support they have got from the German seamen's mission but he said it was not really that organisation's responsibility to be looking after them.
It is eight months since they last worked.
He said the seamen arrived in Fiji before the Covid-19 outbreak and since then had continued to isolate themselves to ensure they did not contract the virus.
Kiraua said none of the 161 had Covid-19.
