Refugee relocation eyed

By GYNNIE KERO
PAPUA New Guinea is seeking help from members of the United Nations to resettle refugees on Manus.
Minister for Immigration and Foreign Affairs Rimbink Pato said some of the refugees had refused to settle in Papua New Guinea.
He explained at a United Nations General Assembly meeting in Washington the status of the agreement with the Australian government regarding the refugees on Manus.
He said PNG was willing to offer resettlement for those determined to be general refugees but they refused.
“Therefore we asked the international community member states of the UN to come in and take some of these people for resettlement. There was very good attention,” Pato said.
Public Service Minister Sir Puka Temu who addressed the UN General Assembly said: “The plight of millions of refugees, migrants, including internally displaced persons, and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives, should and cannot be the new norm.
“No country is immune from the implications of this increasing global concern. In Papua New Guinea, my Government, on a humanitarian basis and under our international human rights obligations and in close partnership with Australia, hosts a regional processing centre on the island of Manus for asylum seekers who have made perilous journeys from troubled areas of the world, including the Middle East and Asia.”