Results for Tonga

A 'Beautiful Tonga Clean Up' campaign held earlier this year, has today presented new lawnmowers to eight villages who did the best clean up work in Tongatapu.

Louena, a Tongan mother of two who lives in Japan, is desperate to be reunited with her babies, daughter Kathleen (5) and infant son, who are now in Tonga without her. The sudden border closure caught the family by surprise and has separated them for over three months.

Three men were arrested with illicit drugs at Patangata and Pili in a Tonga Police operation on June 16-17.

The 50 passengers to board the first repatriation flight from Auckland to Tonga will probably be selected next week, confirmed MEIDECC CEO, Paula Ma’u today, 17 June. “If that goes well, it depends on health and their analysis on whether we will increase the number and even the flights.” Otherwise at that rate, with about 7,000 Tongans overseas who want to return to Tonga, it might take years to repatriate everyone and quarantine will be costly. By Eleanor Gee.

'Ileana Suliana Taulua was found not guilty on five counts of making a false declaration to obtain a Tongan passport at the Supreme Court on June 11. A sixth count of possession of a forged passport was dismissed, after the Crown led no evidence. The Chief Justice also noted that an era within this country to grant passports to non Tongan nationals for considerable sums of money had led to renewals of those passports that caused significant concern.

Tonga’s Ministry of Tourism has confirmed today that government is planning for the first repatriation flight of 50 Tongans “after next week as a start” and that the first passengers will arrive “in three weeks from last Friday, if everything is going as planned”.

The Australian Government has contributed AUD$1.9m to community organisations in Tonga earlier this month, to provide safe water supply, teach hand hygiene, and support agricultural development to protect against the impact of CoViD-19.

Editor's comment: On Friday we reported the government’s announcement that there would be a test/drill repatriation flight, with 50 overseas Tongans arriving on an Air New Zealand cargo flight “next week”, and quarantined for two weeks at the Tanoa Hotel. The problem with our report was that we believed what we were being told at the Prime Minister's press conference held at the Fa'onelua Centre. But the “flight arriving this week” was simply their flight of fantasy.

‘Evona ‘Akau [55] was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 18-months imprisonment, for carrying an excessive number of passengers on the 'Eua ferry MV 'Onemato, in January last year. “Mercifully, there was no tragedy here because, if a life had been lost...more serious charges could have been laid,” said the judge.