Students await tickets for home

By DAVID WAPAR
ABOUT 40 University of Papua New Guinea Madang students, still awaiting tickets to return home, are stranded in Port Moresby without food, water and proper shelter, a spokesman said yesterday.
It had been two weeks since the university year ended and Gibson Warel, a second-year social works student, along with East Sepik students, said they were still waiting for their passages.
He said the university used the Uniforce Security to move them out without considering whether they had relatives in Port Moresby.
“I have been living on mangoes for the past two days,” he said.
He said they had consulted the university’s Student Services, the Office of Higher Education (OHE) and Air Niugini but there was no formal response.
“We want assurances as to when we are travelling,” Warel said.
Attempts to get comment from the university were unsuccessful.
OHE director general Prof David Kavanamur told The National yesterday that the OHE was able to process payments and submit travel plans in time to allow Air Niugini to book students out of Port Moresby.
“However, there were a number of factors causing the delay in issuing tickets for UPNG TESAS students flying to Wewak, Madang, Hoskins, Kavieng and Rabaul,” Kavanamur said.
“Chief among these is the challenge of placing large batches of students at this peak period.
“The OHE and Air Niugini are working tirelessly to resolve flights out of Port Moresby to these centres.” 
Air Niugini’s new ticketing system had presented challenges for the TESAS 2012 student batch, he said.
“Because of this, OHE staff have been physically faxing ticket bookings to the other centres just to ensure students receive their tickets on time.”
Kavanamur appealed to the students for understanding and patience.