At the beginning of the year, the Marshall Islands had limited travel within the country because of an outbreak of dengue fever. They then extended the restrictions for international travel when the novel coronavirus broke out. The RMI government banned travel from China several weeks prior to the March 3, 2020 restrictions on international travel. A few exemptions have been made, such as the repatriation at the end of May of 7 individuals from the Federated States of Micronesia. While Marshallese have suffered at rates higher than other populations in communities across the United States, the Marshall Islands is one of the few countries in the world that has remained COVID-free. The only other countries to successfully avoid the virus have been Kirabiti, Palua, American Samoa, Nauru and Micronesia.
United Airlines used to service three inbound and outbound commercial flights that stopped in Majuro and Kwajalein every week. The airline now only makes one inbound and one outbound stop per month, and no passengers are allowed to get off the plane. There are also several restrictions on the nation’s seaports including a 14-day quarantine of fishing vessels. Cargo ships are required to provide health data on crew members for 21 days before arriving but do not have to quarantine. The US military base on Kwajalein has implemented a protocol to repatriate “mission critical” workers which includes testing over a 72-hour period before leaving Honolulu and additional testing during a 3-week quarantine in Army managed facilities. At the time of publication, 65 workers have completed the quarantine protocol with 40 more still in the process. The military base has also repatriated a handful of Marshallese non-base workers with the same protocol.
In the meantime, nearly 500 Marshallese people who were abroad when the travel ban was announced have been stranded unable to return home. Many Marshallese in school in the United States had nowhere to go when universities canceled in-person classes and closed dormitories. One student attending school in New Mexico had to stay with friends because all of her family was back in the Majuro. Another student in Hawaii posted on Facebook about how emotionally difficult it was to be separated from her baby, now two years old, with family in Majuro: “I’ve been away for almost a year now. You turn 2 and I’m her stuck in lockdown’ville.”
Only people who left the country this year before March 22 are eligible for repatriation. The government recently completed construction on a new COVID-19 medical isolation center on Majuro for repatriation. Amy Ishiguro, a CMI teacher, volunteered to participate with her small child in a practice run at the Arrak facility that the government plans to use to repatriate small groups of people. She describes the experience on her blog here. At a minimum, the entire repatriation process through Majuro will involve a two-week quarantine in Hawaii, multiple tests before flying, multiple stations when getting off the flight, additional tests and quarantine in the Arrak facility. Ishiguro was not confident that this would be enough to safely bring anyone back.
Minister of Health, Jack Niedenthal has been separated from his family this year but believes it is not worth the risk to the country to bring them home. His wife, daughter and grandson were visiting family in Oregon, and his youngest son is at the University of New Mexico. But, Niedenthal says, “Because the news consistently gets worse about this disease, politically it becomes hard and harder for the leadership here to bring people back.” The likelihood of bringing COVID into the Marshall Islands to repatriate 200-300 people would be “a disaster any way you look at it.” Niedenthal is still dead set against the plans but says that ultimately it is the Cabinet’s decision. Niedenthal worries that the US military is pressuring the government to start repatriation so that the first covid-cases will come through Majuro instead of Kwajalein. He finds it hard to trust that protocol used in Kwajalein when the US military had outbreaks in Guam and Okinawa too.