Boroko District Court orders arrest of visa agent

By SHEILA LASIBORI
THE Boroko District Court has directed police and officers from Foreign Affairs and Trade Department to find a person who is reportedly a visa agent based in Port Moresby.
The agent is believed to be in possession of receipts for payments made for the renewal of visa for Chun Guang Chen, a Chinese national facing charges for allegedly remaining in PNG without a visa.
Chun, 41, of Shanghai province, during his mention appearance before the court two weeks ago, claimed some Immigration officers, who he paid hefty amounts of money as “service fees”, never renewed his visa when it expired.
As a result of this claim, the same court had directed police to check with Immigration officials to see if the claim was true.
He was charged under Section 16 (1) (a) of the PNG Migration Act.
He had claimed in his statement (affidavit) filed in court that from 2001 to 2004, his application for visa renewal and work permit had been handled by an agent.
The court has adjourned the matter to Dec 11 allowing enough time for the agent to be located.
Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan, Nakandage Santha Kumara, was also charged under the same section for allegedly travelling into the country using forged entry permit.
Information from documents tendered in court stated that upon his arrival in Port Moresby on Oct 16, Immigration officials at the check-point discovered that he was already issued with a Short-Term Multiple entry permit endorsed and securely attached on a page of his passport.
“On closer observation of the entry permit it was found that the entry permit was fraudulent. The signature was allegedly forged and the typed wordings on the face of this entry permit were not genuine,” the court documents stated.