Vanuatu students safe in PNG

Vanuatu Minister of Education, Jean Pierre Nirua assures parents that the Ministry of Education and Vanuatu Government is placing highest priority on the safety and the welfare of all Vanuatu students in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

This assurance was given after Wednesday's shooting at students mostly from Papua New Guinea by the PNG police during an anti-government protest.

“The Council of Ministers was fully briefed by the Foreign Affairs Minister of Vanuatu on the situation in Port Moresby, especially all Vanuatu students studying there.

“The Ministry of Education and the Vanuatu Government wish to assure the parents of the safety and welfare of the students.

“Tomorrow (today) the Council of Ministers will make a decision as to the step it must make concerning the safety and the welfare of the students and we will inform the parents and the people of Vanuatu as soon as that decision is made.

“In the meantime, I wish to, once again, assure the parents of the safety and welfare of the Vanuatu students in Papua New Guinea,” Minister Nirua said.

All 20 Vanuatu students studying at universities in Papua New Guinea and Medical Faculty of Papua New Guinea are safe and packing to move out to safer places, according to Vanuatu Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Nine students are studying at the Lae University of Technology (UNITECH), five at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and six at the Medical Faculty of Papua New Guinea.

The Daily Post received confirmation from the students at Lae UNITECH who said they are packing ready to leave their university campuses to safer places, with the advice given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Acting Director General in the Vanuatu Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yvon Basil, told Daily Post that he has made contact and spoke to the Vanuatu students at both UPNG and UNITECH and was assured the students are all safe and are awaiting a government decision.

“We are in close contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Port Moresby and seeking all assurances of the safety of our students and the next step to take.

“We have been assured that all foreign students including Vanuatu students are to be moved out of the university campuses to a safer place,” Basil said.

“I am in constant contact with all the Vanuatu students at both universities and the Medical Faculty and will keep the parents, families and people of Vanuatu updated on the moves Vanuatu is taking for the safety of all our students and further arrangements, but at this stage the Vanuatu students are safe,” he assured.

Basil said he spoke to one of the students at UNITECH who reported that the nine Vanuatu students studying there are safe and the campus is locked with the security guarding the main entrance.

Basil added that the students whom he spoke to expressed concern for their safety as they started packing to move to a safer place.

SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST