The Minister of Disaster Poasi Tei says all drums of food and relief items from Tongans in New Zealand sent in the wake of last month’s fatal tsunami must be opened at the border for screening.
He said he had not received any complaints from anyone about anything missing from their shipments.
“We welcome any complaint”, Hon. Tei told Kaniva News.
The Minister was responding after unconfirmed reports and pictures of cargo surfaced on Facebook purporting to show that some drums had been opened and some items had been stolen from them. It has been claimed the incident occurred to cargo sent from Tongans in New Zealand which were released at the Kuini Sālote Wharf in Tonga.
Some claimed all their goods had been stolen and when asked about them the Tongan officials at the wharf claimed their cargo had been removed in New Zealand. The complainants denied this.
The Ministry of Revenue and Customs’ Kelemete Vahe went live on air this afternoon on local radio FM87.5 and urged the public to lodge a complaint regarding their cargo.
He announced his phone contacts details and asked the public to contact him if they had any complaints.
Salote Sisifā, from the Tonga Netball Association posted on Facebook this morning and denied the allegations.
Sisifā described herself as the representative in Tonga of the Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee (ATRC) which was responsible for drumming up of food donations from New Zealand to Tonga. She described herself in Tongan on her post as “Ko’eku ‘i heni ko e fakafofonga e Komiti ngaue tokoni mei NZ “.
Sisifā said people who were working on releasing the shipments were from the Ministry of Disaster, National Emergency Management Operations, His Majesty’s Armed Forces, Police, Customs, the Ministry of Food and the Ports Authority.
“No one enters the cargo areas without any authorisation”, she said.
The ATRC has sent more than 51 shipping containers to Tonga. They arrived last week and are being released to the families this week.
The ATRC said the first shipment of 27 containers have completed quarantine yesterday before two containers had been unloaded and cleared by the Customs.
