“I’m struggling to fish every day and then going into the bush looking for bush tucker. Everyone is doing that,” he says.

Travelling to Daru comes with another risk. On Thursday, PNG recorded 460 new COVID-19 cases. The country has recorded more than 4100 cases and 39 deaths, including that of a government MP, although actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to low testing rates.

Daru, which is the main connection between PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, and the remote Western Province villages, has reported suspected positive cases of COVID-19, Koeget says.

Federal Liberal MP Warren Entsch, whose electorate covers the northern tip of Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands, says closing the border has pushed many treaty residents into a dangerous situation.

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“The villages rely exclusively on those stores for fuel for their outboards but also for staples like sugar, flour, tea, rice, tinned meat,” he says. “Plus detergent, washing powder, disinfectant – things that are absolutely critical in a pandemic.”

When the border closed, Entsch says he argued “very strongly” for support for those villages but the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade organised just two food drops.

“They said, ‘Oh, well they’re growing taro and sweet potato and they can catch a fish, so they are fully self-sufficient and if they need something they can go to Daru’, which was, quite frankly, wrong,” he says.

“There’s been no food drops since then.”

DFAT did not respond to questions by deadline.

‘All of us will die’

So far only a few cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the villages, but Koeget worries about the potential for cases to spread into Sigabadaru and neighbouring areas from PNG.

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“We don’t have vaccines in PNG and all the treaty villages,” he says. “So if COVID-19 is around our villages … all of us will die.”

Vaccinations in the Torres Strait Islands have been expedited in a bid to protect the 4500-odd residents from the threat of COVID-19.

Three of the islands closest to PNG – Saibai, Dauan and Boigu – have already been visited by vaccine teams. But Entsch says by not offering more support, Australia is forcing the villagers to go to Daru, putting them in danger of taking coronavirus home with them.

“It really puts them at high risk,” he says. “We don’t want to force them into an area where we know that there’s a significant amount of COVID even if we have them vaccinated.”

Australia has sent medical teams, personal protective equipment and about 8500 vaccines to PNG so far to help the country tackle its COVID-19 epidemic. The Prime Minister also pledged to help get vaccines to the remote treaty villages when he announced the assistance on March 17.

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This is a good start, Entsch says. But Australia needs to do more, starting with reinstating food support until the treaty border can be reopened.

“I feel we do have an obligation to offer that support,” he says.

‘Is Australia going to assist’?

Koeget was meant to travel to Port Moresby this week for a bilateral discussion with Australia about the treaty zone, but the meeting was postponed. He wanted to ask Australia for help.

“We are the next neighbour to Australia in Sidabadu, we are very close. If there is an outbreak of COVID-19 here, is Australia going to assist when we have people dying like that?” he said.

“We share a border and Sidabadu is in the protected zone, so Australia should come and assist us quickly.”