Working in Isolation

The largest deployment in Op Protect are the personnel working in Managed Isolation Quarantine Facilities (MIQFs) at designated hotels located around the country.

While each hotel works slightly differently, our personnel provide facilities management and administrative support that allows key government agencies to focus on their roles in managing the safe return of New Zealanders from overseas.

Each facility has a military manager, coordinator and two assistants. They work alongside nurses, security staff, police and hotel staff. The personnel ensure smooth arrivals into the accommodation, departures and sometimes transfers to specialised facilities if a returnee is showing symptoms of Covid-19.

MIQF manager Squadron Leader (SQNLDR) Charanjit Singh said the main attributes needed for the role was empathy and displaying “soft skills”.

“Empathy was necessary because many people have come in from a long flight, they’re tired and sometimes arriving quite late. All they want to do is get into the hotel, get into their rooms and settle in. Later on, the feedback we got was they were very positive about having military around.”

As a multilingual speaker, SQNLDR Singh said being able to speak Hindi and Punjabi was useful for guests from India who did not know much English.

“There was a gentleman and his wife who arrived and his wife was not well. She had to transfer to hospital, where she died. That gentleman was obviously very lonely. When I arrived there were some language barriers, but I could speak in Punjabi, so I was able to sit down and talk with him.”

The whole experience resonated with SQNLDR Singh, who said it was the best deployment he had been sent on.

“I’m not going to war, I’m never going to be in a position to be in that situation. For me to help the country, this is the best opportunity possible, to do what we are trained for.

“It’s important that the public sees us going on operational deployment. This is one of the opportunities where they see us up front, doing things.”

MIQF manager Squadron Leader (SQNLDR) Gareth Russell said he was humbled to be able to work with such a competent, close-knit team at the Rydges in Auckland, where he was based.

“The most rewarding part of it was just feeling like you were helping out. There was one man who was feeling anxious because he had some tenants in a home that he was trying to get to,

but who were refusing to move. All he needed was someone to sit down and talk to for half an hour.”

Some of the returnees were going through tragic circumstances and the team would develop close bonds with them during the quarantine period, he said.

There were challenging moments as well, with one member of the public persisting in attempting to enter the hotel – firstly to convince staff that Covid was a hoax.

“I told him he was absolutely entitled to his opinion, but he wasn’t entitled to be inside the fence.

“A couple of weeks later he again tried to sneak in, but he was stopped by the security guards. Turned out he wanted to tell me he did believe Covid was a real thing. I again told him that he was entitled to believe anything he wanted, but he still couldn’t come in the hotel.”

After his deployment, SQNLDR Russell wrote an open email to his command and colleagues saying: “Overall, I believe in this effort 100%. I feel NZDF is now part of a much bigger family and having direct involvement in the effort to keep NZ safe is both challenging and fulfilling.”

Squadron Leader Derek Bezuidenhout, also a MIQFs manager, said the work was different to anything else he had done.

“It was pretty cool to interact with hotel staff and people from different organisations and it was quite enjoyable watching people leave and how happy they were.

“I really enjoyed the constant change. There was always something to improve. It was a constant improvement process because it’s never been done before.”

For new Pilot Officer (PLTOFF) Jordan Sebire, the deployment was his first after graduating from officer training.

“I was a coordinator and it was a little bit daunting but quite an exciting role to step into. It was a really good opportunity to put everything that I had just learned into practice – all the leadership skills.

“I was at the hotel 24/7. It was long days of constant work – whether that was monitoring emails, updating ops reports, helping guests or talking with other agencies,” he said.

Fellow coordinator Flight Sergeant (F/S) Leo Wiapo said working in the MIQFs was a positive experience.

“At the end of every day I would think to myself that even though I was exhausted, I’d always have a smile on my face. I felt it was really rewarding work and I was really proud to be doing something like that so early in my career.” – Pilot Officer Jordan Sebire

“If we had a positive effect on the guests and made their stay as easy as possible within the boundaries, that was a win.

“It was cool working with the team we had and the other agencies. It highlighted how quickly the NZDF can make a team work and we get through the whole awkward communication stuff really, really quickly. You have to really get into the nuts and bolts as to how things work. We get into it early and the banter starts flying around.”

Sergeant (SGT) Jale Lal, who worked as an assistant, said the experience working with the public and hearing their stories was an “eye-opener”.

“You’d have people come in frustrated that they have to stay in a hotel. You’re the face of it all and so you have to try to put them in a good mood. Probably because I’m Fijian I’ve always got a smile on my face and that sets the tone.”

Having patience, especially for the guests who didn’t have English as a first language, or didn’t speak English at all was a key skill, he said.

“There was a family of refugees from Afghanistan who were new to the country and culture. I think it meant something to them that I was looking after them, because I had brown skin it meant they weren’t immediately overwhelmed by the new culture.”

SGT Lal was thanked by one of the guests in a unique way after he bought a jar of Vaseline for him.

“He drew me a treasure map for where to find paua and kina and told me that’s where I would find the best ones. Those little things made my day.”

Aircraftman Ezra Tiffen enjoyed his time deployed as an assistant.

“Everyone was really lovely and the guests were great. At one point we thought one had escaped but it turned out it was a teenager running across roofs, parkour-style. We called the police, but it was just a local kid.

“It was a really good deployment and it was really nice to meet people from different places as well. They were isolated in the hotel, whenever they met new people, they liked to talk. When we came around with the nurses they all had good yarns.”