From IOM PRESS BRIEFING NOTES
Christmas Island: Update 04 Sep 2001
by Jean Philippe Chauzy, IOM Spokesperson

A team of four IOM operations staff and three Dari/Pashto interpreters, including two women, have joined the 434 migrants aboard the Australian troopship HMAS Manoora.

The ship sailed from Christmas Island for Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea yesterday, after the migrants were transferred to the Manoora from the Norwegian container ship the Tampa. According to IOM's Richard Danziger, who observed the operation, the transfer "was very carefully planned by the Australian Defence Forces, calm and went well."

The voyage is expected to take about seven days. En route, the IOM team will register and inform the migrants about their situation. An IOM medical team is expected to join the HMAS Manoora from Darwin later this week.

A second four-person team, headed by IOM's Manila-based Regional Representative, has arrived on the Pacific island state of Nauru to work with the authorities there to prepare for the arrival of the migrants.

In Port Moresby, the group is expected to transfer to IOM chartered flights either to Nauru or to New Zealand, where their asylum claims will be assessed. New Zealand has agreed to take 150 of the group, including families with children.