WWW.INFOPAPUA.ORG
West Papua News and Information
West Papua Net | Free West Papua Campaign (UK) | West Papua Action (Ireland) 

Last Updated: Mar 2nd, 2008 - 04:34:34
WPNews Online 
 
 INFO PAPUA
 
 Statements
 
 Papuan Human Rights
 
 Eco-Terrorism
 
 Indo Neocolonialism
 
 Refugee Issue
 
 War on Terror
 
 Melanesia Roundup
 
 WARTA PAPUA MERDEKA DALAM GAMBAR

 

PLEASE HELP US:

DONATE with PayPal

We need your support to keep our websites and campaigns going.

We need your contributions to assist us with our Human Rights campaigns.

Please use the PayPal Donate button above to help the people of West Papua

 

Search

Refugee Issue

[West Papuan] Refugees neglected
By Post Courier (PNG)
Jan 4, 2008, 23:06

 		Email this article
 Printer friendly page
Post Courier (PNG)
3rd January 2008

Lot of 'forgotten people'

Freddy Waromi

Freddy Waromi (left)

an elder of the West Papua asylum seekers talking about their plight yesterday.

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20080103/news06.htm

[West Papuan] Refugees neglected

MEN, women and children, including babies, of West Papuan origin looked warm and comfortable as they either sat or slept in their makeshift camp at the police station in Boroko during the rain yesterday.


Unlike at Ela Beach where they had moved to in October last year when evicted from a piece of land at Eight-Mile outside Port Moresby, they have excellent toilet and shower facilities at Boroko.


For many of them, this is also the first place where they have had running water and electricity since moving across the border from West Papua to Papua New Guinea 30 years ago.


The comforts, however, will not last long. The National Capital District metropolitan superintendent Fred Yakasa, who had brought them there initially for police protection, has threatened to move them out unless the Government authorities and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees come quickly to their aid. Yesterday, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Pepson said the Government had asked these people to apply for citizenship but they had refused and therefore there was nothing more it could do except work with UNHCR.

The UNHRC, on the other hand, responded by saying it worked with the Government and would do what the Government wanted.


“We are working with the Government to come up with a solution,’’ said Jeff Hoppen-brouwers, UNHRC official.


The West Papuan’s plight goes beyond their eviction from the land at Eight-Mile. Spokesman Freddy Waromi described their situation as a result of neglect by the PNG government to attend to their plight over the years.

He said as permanent residents they were required under the law to have their entry permits renewed every year which worked well for two to three years. But he said for the past 30 years, each time they called into migration they were either ignored or waved away. Under the law they could be granted citizenship after eight years, but that has not happened.

He said in recent years, Foreign Affairs had also changed it’s policy which stated applicants for citizenship needed to pay K10,000, which he said a majority of his people could not afford.



© Copyright by w@tchPAPUA

Top of Page
Refugee Issue
Latest Headlines
IGSARPRI helping Papuans repatriate from PNG
West Papuans here to stay: UNHCR
WEST PAPUA: new on-line FILM: Forgotten in the Mountains: Displacement in the Highlands of Papua (Simon James, University of Oxford)
PNG government vows to look after Papua refugees
UN calls on PNG to resettle refugees
[West Papuan] Refugees neglected
Repatriation of West Papuans soon
West Papuans here to stay: UNHCR