Health concerns delays Alvarenga's return home from Marshalls

Transcript

Health concerns for the man who survived a 13-month drift from Mexico to the Marshall Islands has led to his departure from the Marshalls being delayed.

Mr Alvarenga, who was due to leave on Friday, may now have to wait until next week to depart.

The deputy chief of mission at the Mexican Embassy in Manila, Christian Clay Mendoza, says Jose Salvador Alvarenga is suffering from dehydration and other issues and doctors have said he should not fly yet.

Mr Mendoza, who is visiting Majuro, spoke to our correspondent, Giff Johnson.

CHRISTIAN CLAY MENDOZA: I guess the main question here is how long was he really at sea.  And I have a feeling that when you are out there solo you lose track of time, and he probably doesn't even know himself.  We are going to try and get from the Mexican Port Authorities if they have a record of when the boat left.

GIFF JOHNSON: Could you just comment briefly about the situation of him going to El Salvador because we are hearing that he wants to go back to Mexico, we understand that he is actually not a documented worker?

CM: The government of El Salvador have requested that he be returned to his family and I have told him that once he returns to his family, and he is feeling better and everything, and if he goes through the proper channels, I am sure our embassy people in El Salvador will be more than willing to assist him in getting him to Mexico legally, if he really wants to go back to Mexico, I think he had lived there for a number of years and probably has some sort of roots or something he wants to go back to so we would be willing to look into that at the appropriate time.  For now he has to go back to his own country.

GJ:And this would mean getting him back to San Salvador?  That would be your destination?

CM: my duty is to get him back to san salvador then I believe that the government authorities will get him back to his town which is actually way up in the border close to Guatemala.

GJ: So you are probably looking at a next week departure?

CM: Originally he started to get a lot better earlier this week and so we were originally looking perhaps him leaving tomorrow and the doctors have now advised that we should wait a few more days, so maybe early next week.

GJ: Can you just confirm, we were told that your government has offered and is in fact paying for his return for airfare or whatever the costs are to get him home, is that correct?  

CHRISTIAN CLAY MENDOZA: I don't who the final payee is going to be but what the Salvadoran government asked us for was support and facilitation, and since I was already on my way here, and they don't have an embassy in the region, and we are going to do whatever it takes to get him back to El Salvador.