11.20.14 Refugees

This was an exciting day. In addition to the four boats of fisherman from VietNam who were poaching sea cucumbers, we now have one boat from Indonesia with refugees from India and Nepal. Environmental Health and Sanitation is charged with overseeing them and the doctors were alerted to some people with rashes. So I volunteered to go with one other doctor and examine the refugees. All 34 of them had scabies, so  not so bad. But they had no food and no water. So after treating them, the PH staff moved into high gear and collected a lot of money by their standards and we were ableto buy them rice, ramen noodles (yes, everyone here loves them and even eat them uncooked as a snack), and water. In addition we got them soap and cleaner and bleach. When I returned to the hospital, I also reported to EHS that they had no water or food. The head then wrote an email to the governor, lt governor, and attorney general stating that the men were starving and without water or cooking fuel. Actually, he said I reported this to him. The government was supposed to supply them with food and water, so this got them into action and when I went back later in the afternoon (my third trip) they now had a supply of ready water and were eating biscuits for dinner. So once again I informed EHS that they had no cooking fuel, so now they have that.

Our staff were very generous and I was very proud of them. People collected money, gave up water bottles that we could fill with clean water, gave up some of their lunch and tomorrow they will be bringing in local food.

There is a Red Cross here, but they are very slow to respond. They were waiting for money to come in from the capital before they made "donations". The plan is to get enough provisions for them to send them back to Indonesia, once the paper work in completed, according to  my police escort. We think this is an example of human trafficking. The story we have is that the boat left Indonesia with just the captain and one crew member. Then at some point several boats joined him and delivered the 34 men. They are planning on going to Hawaii to get US passports. (As an aside - when the Chief of Medicine  told us this story and I volunteered to examine them, one of  the doctors said - now when they see Dr. Rosemary they will think they are in America and will get passports!).  I did ask the men where they were going and they all think they will be going to America. But Yap officials have alerted the US Coast Guard and have plans to  escort them in the direction home. I suspect these 34 men paid a lot of money to get to the USA; they will be sorely disappointed to learn that that will not happen. They were all clean cut and polite. Some spoke a little English. Mostly they were thirsty and hungry. But now they have food, water and medicine.

Here are a couple of pictures. This time I was doing more doctoring and not much shutterbugging.

We also visited the police station to see these five men. They were just being questioned, not arrested.

It is hard to imagine this vessel being seaworthy. The stern did break away from the dock - it looked like the line broke. It was frayed. I wonder if they will actually make it anywhere as it is now typhoon season.