Australians living on the international border with Papua New Guinea say they are angry and frustrated a coronavirus vaccine rollout across the region announced as a matter of urgency by the prime minister three months ago is yet to fully get going.
Second-round vaccinations began last week for vulnerable frontline Torres Strait Island Indigenous communities in Queensland.
But over the border, the immunisation of thousands of PNG villagers - which Scott Morrison said in mid-March would be covered and delivered by the Queensland government - is yet to be realised.
“It makes me feel very frustrated and angry, even more so,” said Herbert Warusam, a Dhoeybaw clan leader on Saibai, the second-most northerly island in the Torres Strait, just four kilometres from the PNG coast.
"[Vaccination] needs to happen. It needs to happen straight away. It needs to happen now."
Mr Warusam and his Papua New Guinean wife Sabe are keeping a close eye out for news from family in an area just over the other side of the border known as the South Fly.
Herbert Warusam and his wife Sabe Source: Stefan Armbruster/SBS News
The South Fly has the second-highest rate of COVID infection in PNG, where the pandemic .
This is Australia’s only border with another nation, which was closed last year to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
“Because of our close proximity to Papua New Guinea, people on Saibai feel that all the population needs to be vaccinated,” Mr Warusam said.
'Our PNG family'
As PNG's COVID-19 crisis really began to deepen in mid-March, Mr Morrison said there was an immediate need to vaccinate on both sides of the border.
“The forward deployment of vaccinations, particularly into the treaty villages [just on the other side of the Torres Strait] ... will be a very achievable and very practical way of addressing that immediate need to effectively provide and extend the ring of containment beyond the Torres Strait Islands on our side of the border into those more sensitive parts of [PNG],” he said .
“That work in the vaccinations would be undertaken by the Queensland government in the same way that they're currently doing that in the Torres Strait Islanders' communities.
“This is in Australia's interests and it is in our region's interests and it's incumbent on us as Australians, both in securing the health of our own citizens but equally of our PNG family who are so dear to us.”
Sixty-five per cent of the Indigenous community on Saibai are now fully vaccinated, and Mr Warusam was among the first to be fully immunised last week.
Herbert Warusam getting a COVID-19 vaccine Source: Stefan Armbruster/SBS News
The Warusams regularly talk on the phone with family across the border and hear it’s a very different story in PNG.
“The people are very worried. They're very worried about COVID-19 coming to the village people,” Mr Warusam said.
In a statement to SBS News, the World Health Organization said just 130 essential workers have been vaccinated along the PNG side of the border from its and a full vaccine rollout is not due until later this year.
The Saibai Island Community Centre has been turned into a vaccination hub
The WHO said in the whole of Western Province, which has a population of 200,000 people, just over 1,000 people have been immunised.
The Queensland government did not respond to questions and referred SBS News to the Prime Minister's Office, which said the questions were a matter for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
DFAT said in a statement: “Australian aid is supporting vaccine education and health planning and have offered to also support clinical management, transport and logistics as required.”
SBS News understands there has been no formal request to Queensland Health from the Commonwealth, nor are there plans for the state government to provide vaccinations in PNG.
Border closure 'a success'
The Australian Border Force is currently carrying out Operation Overarch in the Torres Strait, aimed at "stopping the flow of people – and potentially COVID-19 – from Papua New Guinea into Australia".
Thousands of crossings for traditional purposes usually allowed under a bilateral treaty have also been stopped.
More than 15,000 people crossed the border in 2019 before COVID under the internationally unique Torres Strait Treaty between Australia and PNG that came into force in 1985 for family and cultural reasons, traditional trade and medical assistance.
The ABF said keeping the border closed and stopping contact with the approximately 10,000 people who live immediately on either side has been a success.
“That we are still COVID free in the Torres Strait is a testimony to the effectiveness of the operation,” Commander Colin Drysdale said.
The Strait’s travel restrictions are being enforced by patrol boats, planes and helicopters, a sophisticated new radar system based on Queensland's Masig Island, and personnel distributed throughout the islands.
But Operation Overarch hasn’t stopped all boats from PNG.
ABF Commander Colin Drysdale Source: Stefan Armbruster/SBS News
“Since Operation Overarch has been going, it's cut [travel] by around 90 per cent and the persons that have been coming over have been seeking medical treatment,” commander Drysdale said.
“When there's a landing and they're seeking medical attention, any person that requires medical attention is allowed to actually land” and is tested for COVID-19, he added.
Two weeks ago in Senate Estimates, the ABF confirmed on average four boats a month were entering the Torres Strait.
Commander Drysdale did not say how much Operation Overarch is costing taxpayers and said how long the action lasts will ultimately be a decision for the federal government.
"I think we'll be there for quite some time," he said.
The Warusams have not seen their relatives in PNG in more than a year and want the villages there vaccinated as soon as possible so the border can reopen and visits, trade and cultural practices can resume.
A Border Force patrol boat off Saibai with the PNG South Fly coast in the background. Source: Stefan Armbruster/SBS News
"[The government] is not respecting my rights, our rights as a people, in the forefront and owners of this treaty relationship," Mr Warusam said
"[The villages] need to be vaccinated because they are part of us, so the Australian government needs to do more so that we can practice the treaty.
"This has put a stop to our lifeblood."
