A team from Papua New Guinea's mobile police squad has been stranded on Daru Island in Western Province for two weeks.
Papua New Guinea police. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
The team, Mobile Squad Seven, was deployed from Mt Hagen to Daru and then were to police the Indonesian border.
The state broadcaster NBC reported they had been stranded because the South Fly Administration and the police hierarchy lacked funds for them to continue their duties.
The squad of 40 had been looked after by local businesses and the community but its commander, Chief Sergeant A K Kukuma, said they needed funding to do their job.
Chief Sergeant Kukuma said they were just wasting their time there when they had an important role to play at such a crucial time.
Earlier this month the government announced additional troops and police were being deployed to two provinces along the porous border with Indonesia, running over 700 kilometres in length on land alone.
The measures came as fears Covid-19 infected people could cross the border, bringing further cases into PNG.
Neighbouring Indonesia has a surge of cases which may have yet to reach its peak - cases are steadily growing towards eight thousand, with at least 635 people dying from the coronavirus.
There were 123 confirmed cases in West Papua, around half of them are in the two main cities close to the PNG border, Jayapura and Merauke.
So far PNG has had eight confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Indonesian soldiers man the border with Papua New Guinea at Wutung. Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
