Tonga Police this morning confirmed that the three Tongan men found at Oneata on the Lau Group on Friday, 8 August are the missing Nomuka fishermen.

Police were able to talk to one of them the son Sione Filipe Taulafo on Saturday 9 August, who reported they are safe and well.

The men are still on Oneata Island waiting to be transported sometime this week to Lakepa Island where the Fijian police rescue team would be waiting to take them to Suva.

On Friday, police in Nuku'alofa received information from Fiji Police at 2:00pm (local Tongan time) that divers had found three men, believed to be Tongans, swimming in the sea near Oneata. Police understood that the men were on a reef in the area and had been taken to Oneata.

The men ‘are Elone Taulafo, his son Sione and son-in-law Sofele Folau, were last seen in the early morning of July 30 when they left on a fishing trip in a 20ft boat from Nomuka, Ha’apai.