Addrress influx of foreigners

WE ARE quite surprised that nobody speaking the language that is uppermost in many people’s mind: the relentless and seemingly unstoppable flow of foreigners into PNG and, particularly, into jobs and businesses that should rightly be restricted to Papua New Guineans.
So long as this continues, there will come a time not too long in the future when the tension explodes in bloody violence.
The uprising of May 2009 showed the anger and danger that lies not too far below the surface in this country.
What seemed to be a simple protest by those in the informal sector turned into a fully-fletched riot that spread from Port Moresby to Lae, Kainantu, Goroka, Mt Hagen, Madang and touched parts of Wewak and Vanimo.
Keeping silent about it as the parliamentary committee that has been charged with inquiring into the riots has done will not make the frustration and anger go away.
Rather, it will just intensify them.
The new parliament must make it its business to address this issue. It must because this frustration is deep rooted.
It stems from a people watching their land being grabbed by outsiders. It stems from them watching business opportunities and jobs pass them by.
It stems from watching their womenfolk married off to the newcomers.
Where once the people thought at Independence that they were finally rid of the colonialism, there now emerges a new form of subjugation.
Only this time a far more educated local population will not take it lying down.
The parliamentary committee formed to investigated the 2009 riots uncovered errors, weaknesses, lack of communication and oversight so numerous that, in the words of the committee chairman to parliament, “the blame for the influx of foreigners can be laid right at our own government’s door step”.
Key departments and agencies such as the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Services, the work permit division of Labour and Industrial Relations, Customs Services and the Investment Promotion Authority operate as if they are competing companies with hardly a meeting to share notes.
Oversight and security organisations such as  the National Intelligence Organisation, the Police Force, the PNG Defence Force and the Internal Revenue Commission are likewise uncoordinated.
In an ideal environment, all these gatekeeper organisations should be cooperating well together as one unit.
Information should be exchanged on a regular level and action taken in concert.
The reality is quite the opposite.
These organisations operate in isolation, do not have regular meetings or communication with each other, are severely understaffed and under-resourced.
The heads of each organisation who appeared before the committee readily admitted to there being rampant corruption within the organisations.
This is a pathetic situation which is certainly a big part of the reason that gave rise to the May riots.
All organisations which appeared before this committee admitted that the Asian problem is real, that it is increasing and that it is here to stay.
Things that we only read about or see in movies such as human smuggling, prostitution rings, money laundering and document fraud are rife here in Papua New Guinea. And it is spreading.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 foreigners, mostly Asians, are believed to be residing and working in Papua New Guinea but that is
only a conservative guesstimate.
Nobody knows for sure and certainly not the Immigration and Citizenship Service, whose business it is to know.
What is the most worrisome aspect is the lack of capacity all around by our very government entities responsible for protecting PNG’s interests and for ensuring that foreign enterprises and workers are genuine.
Lack of resources, particularly funds and staffing, is a fairly universal issue.
Customs and immigration are under-represented at all points of entry into the country.
The works permit division of Labour and Employment has seven officers where there should be 70.
Immigration and Citizenship Services lacks an institutional memory. That means that it has very unreliable records of how many visas, what classes of them and who it has been issued to.
It is unable to tell just how many illegal people there are in the country.
This matter of poor communication beggars description.
How can foreign businesses and individuals be effectively monitored, helped, and told to toe the line when each link in the government chain, so to speak, is broken?
It is clear that the lack of regular communication and coordination among government agencies are the biggest cause of the influx of foreigners into the country.
They are not coming in the backdoor.
They are coming through the front door using our own system. And once here they continue to remain because there is lack of capacity to monitor the movements and activities of foreigners in the country.