Aust’s visa system discriminatory

 WE have known for a long time that gaining entry into Australia from Papua New Guinea is not easy. 

Papua New Guineans seem to have some kind of invisible sign hanging over their heads exclaiming “check, double check and triple check this”. 

Australian immigration laws appear to make it almost impossible for people from PNG to apply and acquire visas to work and stay in Australia. 

Why is that? 

Australian citizens are allowed almost free entry to our shores, no questions asked. 

Obviously there are security laws and protocols that must be respected but for the majority of the travelling public going south, this should not be a sticking point. 

Other Pacific Islanders do not seem to have entry issues. 

But having visas approved and meeting the stringent requirements placed on people from this country seeking to travel to Australia, one would think Papua New Guineans were the second coming of the plague. 

Last Friday Bogia MP John Hickey, who happens to be a transplanted Australian, asked Prime Minister Peter O’Neill whether he was going to do anything about the ridiculous treatment many Papua New Guineans were copping from Australia in regards to the issuance of “normal” travel, business and tourist visas. 

In response O’Neill, who is part Irish-Australian him­self, instructed Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato to bring up the subject with his Australian counterpart, and push for a fairer go. 

Visas issues have been given as one of the problems many talented rugby league players have been denied a chance to play in Australian competitions. 

An excuse proffered to explain Australian officials’ reluctance to issue visas for players had been that they lacked the communication skills and education level deemed necessary to be put in these communities. 

Former Lae MP Bart Philemon, who was educated in Australia, was more forthright with his views on the situation. 

Philemon told this paper that he experienced a level of treatment recently that he could only describe as “blatant racism”. 

According to the 68-year-old, after disembarking from an Air Niugini flight that landed in Brisbane last Wednesday, he and other Papua New Guineans were ushered to a line and made to go through a set of checks, one of which involved sniffer dogs. The experienced left Philemon incensed at the lack of respect accorded to PNG citizens. 

“We were told to queue up there and I stood behind a woman, who was Indian but she was black. 

“I stood there and all the black ones who collected their bags came and there were about 20 of us, all queuing up on the red carpet, and they put on the sniffer dog. There was only one white man who was in that line. I told the quarantine man, ‘this is really bad as there is no white person here except for a white man who’s married to a Papua New Guinean so why are you doing this? 

“He said ‘go and check the government’ and I asked ‘which government’. 

He went and grabbed me a document about bio-security.” 

The “red carpet” reference by Philemon was in relation to an incident in 2005 when Sir Michael Somare was subjected to security checks that was likened to that which an individual considered a security risk would undergo.   

Sir Michael was subjected to lengthy security searches at Brisbane Airport on his way to and from New Zealand. According to PNG Government officials who travelled with Sir Michael, security officials at Brisbane airport told the prime minister as he was being escorted to the VIP room to go through security checks. 

He was told to empty his pockets, take off his watch and stretch out for a metal detector scan. 

Later at the VIP room a security officer asked Sir Michael to take off his shoes for a scan. 

Sir Michael called the treatment “an insult” and demanded an apology from the Australian government. 

Nothing official has been forthcoming. If men like Sir Michael and Philemon can be treated this way then we wonder what kind of checks Barak Obama would have to endure when visiting Australia.