Where are missing observers?

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s government has been asked to investigate the disappearance of nationals aboard foreign fishing vessels in recent years.

Parliament has been told that 18 Papua New Guineans working as fisheries observers in seas around PNG have disappeared in the past five years.

The governor of East Sepik province, Allan Bird, drew attention to the ongoing problem of disappearing observers.

The latest observer lost was James Numbaru, an employee of PNG’s National Fisheries Authority, who went missing in mysterious circumstances in the sea near Nauru last year.

Bird asked what the government was doing about such disappearances, and whether any fishing companies have been held accountable for deaths of observers.

He has called for an immediate investigation into the disappearances, to which the Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel said the government was open to.