The Trump administration chartered a private yacht for $750,000 to evacuate a single American citizen from a remote South Pacific island after she had been aboard a cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak, a move that has further strained the State Department's emergency budget. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
The woman may have been exposed to the virus while aboard the Dutch MV Hondius cruise liner in April. She got off the ship and then flew to San Francisco before traveling to the isolated British territory of Pitcairn Island through Tahiti, according to two U.S. officials and an internal government document obtained by The Associated Press. The exact amount of the total evacuation payment is still being assessed because the operation is still underway. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a medical case covered by U.S. privacy laws.
The costly effort to pick up the woman has added to the expense of rapid evacuations for diplomats and private U.S. citizens from the Middle East since the start of the Iran war as well as preparations for possible evacuations from Ebola-stricken countries. All have stressed the State Department budget for unforeseen emergencies, known as the "K Fund," and brought its balance to the lowest level in seven years.
Another internal document said the State Department is looking at transferring as much as $50 million into that emergency fund from other accounts — $35 million from the budget for embassy security, construction and maintenance and an additional $15 million from an account that pays for broader diplomatic programming. No decision on the transfers has yet been made. One of the officials said the State Department has another option, to ask Congress to replenish the fund. However, the official said the department is expected to be able to handle payments for both ongoing and "emerging contingency needs."
The State Department declined to comment on the specifics of the woman's case on Pitcairn Island but said that "when an American is at risk abroad and unable to access commercial transportation, the Department of State seeks to provide appropriate assistance to get them home to the United States or to another safe location."
After the woman departed the cruise liner where the hantavirus outbreak occurred, the ship continued to other destinations in the South Atlantic, with some passengers falling ill and at least three dying. The unidentified American woman was stuck on Pitcairn, an island with only about 50 inhabitants, no airport and infrequent maritime options to depart.
Pitcairn is well-known as the island on which Fletcher Christian and other British mutineers from the HMS Bounty took refuge after the 1789 events. British authorities had sought urgent American assistance in evacuating the woman from the island, which is their territory, according to the government document. But initial attempts to send her to Tahiti, a French dependency, about 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometers) from Pitcairn, were rejected by French Polynesian authorities, who did not want to allow her.