A male returnee has described a hotel room in which the Tongan government had arranged for him to stay while being in a 10-day Covid quarantine period as appalling.

It has been reported the room and toilet at the Kupesi Hotel were dirty and food was bad. It has been claimed the sheets were unwashed or unchanged and part-used bars of soap were left in the hotel bathrooms for clients to use,  reported Radio TV Tonga International.

The complainant alleged the hotel had provided expired milk for their daily meals. There were reports of other repatriates in the hotel taking photos of the expired milk and sharing them on Facebook.

The man’s wife reportedly said the whole experience was disgusting.

The woman, who said she made contact with her husband while he was currently staying in the hotel,  said she had raised their concerns with the Minister of Health.

Kaniva News contacted the Prime Minister’s office for comment. We also contacted the Kupesi Hotel through an email provided on a Facebook account known as Kupesi Hotel.

We have asked the Chief Secretary in an email in which the Prime Minister and other government ministers and a CEO were copied to respond to the complaint.

We asked the Chief Secretary to let us know whether the government was aware of the situation and the hotel’s condition.

We also wanted to know whether the government still paid for the hotel’s services to serve and host overseas repatriates.

The report about the Kupesi hotel was shared on Facebook, and it has sparked outrage among members of the Tongan online community.

While supporters of the hotel wanted to hear from its management’s side of the story many wanted to know whether the government should take responsibility for choosing a hotel to provide what appeared to be substandard MIQ services to Tongan repatriates who had no choice in choosing which MIQ to stay.