KUCHING, Dec 18 — A total of 106 Malaysians landed here last night on a direct flight from Papua New Guinea (PNG) where they had been stranded since October.

The Malaysians consisting of 91 from Sarawak, 10 from Peninsular Malaysia and five from Sabah were immediately placed in quarantine centres in accordance with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the state Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) for Covid-19.

Sarawak Minister of Transport Datuk Lee Kim Shin said a Sarawakian in the PNG capital of Port Moresby had contacted him for assistance after their attempts to fly home failed.

"They were working in PNG under 33 companies of different sectors, such as logging, retailer service or office work.

"They wanted to come back to Malaysia as most of them have completed their employment contract,” Lee said in a statement.

He added they used to transit in Singapore but the island state has since barred this due to Covid-19 prevention.

"Therefore, the travel agency has chartered an Air Niugini Limited’s direct flight from Port Moresby International Airport to Kuching International Airport.

"However, the flight has been postponed several times due to no approval regarding validation of Foreign Aircraft Operators Certificate (FAOC) from Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia (CAAM).

"This has resulted some of the passengers stranded in Port Moresby,” he said.

He said they have incurred thousands of dollars for daily expenses in PNG due to no confirmation of flight.

He said a Sarawakian in PNG then sought his assistance on behalf of all the stranded Sarawakians by reaching his Facebook Messenger.

Lee said he then immediately liaised with the Transport Ministry in Putrajaya to expedite CAAM on validation of FAOC for the chartered flight to fly directly to Kuching from PNG and also SDMC to ensure smooth entry of the passengers into Sarawak.