AUSTRALIAN federal officers are preparing an unprecedented sweep through the Torres Strait to deport Papua New Guineans illegally living on those islands.
Community leaders in the Torres Strait held emergency meetings with Immigration officials last week, after a surge in the number of people arriving from PNG, securing a commitment to have them deported.
An Immigration spokesman yesterday refused to discuss the coming operation, but confirmed meetings with community leaders had recently taken place.
“The department has held recent meetings with councils in the Torres Strait. However, we will not discuss operational details,” the spokesman said.
Thursday Island mayor Pedro Stephen said communities including Saibai, Boigu, Iama, Masig, Dauan, Erub and Badu islands were in danger of being annexed by PNG because of the large number of illegal arrivals.
“All seem to have more PNG nationals living there than local islanders,” Mr Stephen said. “They are coming and taking over all the businesses.”
The situation has become particularly bad on Saibai Island in northern Torres Strait, where as many as 300 of the immigrants, dubbed “overstayers” by the locals, have strained resources and almost run the islands limited water supply dry.
Mr Stephen said the Torres Strait Treaty, which came into effect in 1985 and allows the movement of people between PNG and the Australian islands, needed to be rewritten to ensure economic development in Western province.
“There’s been nothing built there for decades. What you have is the Third World just a stone’s throw from an Australian community,” Mr Stephen said.
“It’s no wonder they travel to access services. They’ve got nothing at home.”
Even the most senior PNG national in Torres Strait, the Rev Lawes Waia, who lives on Thursday Island, just off the tip of Cape York, has called for the borders to be closed and the Torres Strait Treaty to be torn up.
“Whether we drink contaminated water, whether we carry sickness and diseases on our bodies, whether no government services are reaching us, let’s stop bothering the Torres Strait Islanders with their island facilities and resources. Please close the border now and put all words into action,” Mr Waia said.
Mr Stephen said communities in the northern Torres Strait were concerned the numbers might become so great they would wind up becoming PNG territory.
“You have to remember that when the Torres Strait treaty was signed, PNG wanted to basically cut the strait in half and administer the islands north of Badu,” Mr Stephen said.
“A lot of people remember that and think maybe this is a way of getting those islands.”
A senior Saibai Island community member, who asked not to be named, said the PNG nationals ignored local immigration officers and had built a filthy shanty town on the northern edge of the island.
“We are pleased the Department of Immigration is finally going to do something,” the local said. “These people have brought diseases which we can not cope with. It is not good for our community.” – PNS