From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 14, no. 3, July 1999.

The whereabouts of three Chinese nationals, who were discovered hiding inside a container, when the Tausala Samoa arrived in Tauranga, New Zealand, on July 12, is now uncertain.

It was thought that the three could be in for a long voyage when they were not permitted to disembark in New Zealand. A spokesperson for the New Zealand High Commission in Nuku‘alofa said that the three would be returned to Tonga on the same ship. They did not have any identification or travel papers, and could not speak English.

However, without their papers they may have difficulty reentering Tonga, and the ship is not scheduled to call into Nuku‘alofa again in the near future. Cargo for Tonga is being transshipped on other vessels.

Security tightened

It is believed the stowaways were loaded onto the ship at Nuku‘alofa’s Queen Salote Wharf.

The Tausala Samoa left Tonga early on Saturday July 10. Roger Cocker of Dateline Shipping, the ship’s agent in Nuku‘alofa, said that the container was among empty containers which had been washed, ready to be shipped back to the USA. The empty containers were stacked at the top of the load on the ship, which can carry up to 1,000 containers. “We do not know how the men got into the container. Security at the wharf has been tightened since the harbor management was taken over by the recently established Port Authority.”

Roger said that according to their people in New Zealand, “there was enough food and water in the container to have lasted the three men all the way from New Zealand to Australian and back to the West Coast of the USA.

Unknown fate

Immigration officials in Nuku‘alofa declined to comment on the case. At the end of August the ship’s agents said the case was still under investigation and they could not confirm the whereabouts of the stowaways.