Border security essential

Editorial

THE coronavirus has uncovered Papua New Guinea’s weakness in border security.
Government last month deployed additional troops and police to West Sepik and Western be placed along the border with Indonesia.
The border runs 7860km in length on land alone and has always been PNG’s biggest threat.
Indonesia is the only country PNG shares land border with.
The poor facilities at the PNG-Indonesia border at Wutung has always been a major threat.
Though there had been ongoing projects to improve the border post facilities, they remain incomplete.
Two months ago, West Sepik Governor Tony Wouwou, closed the PNG-Indonesia border post at Wutung in response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. The Wutung border post is about 50km from the West Papua capital of Jayapura which has a population of about 314,000.
Despite its closure and further reinforced by a state of emergency in PNG, people continue to covertly cross the PNG-Indonesian border daily, into West Papua to sell vanilla beans and other produce.
The border post is a very busy one, not only for people of greater Sepik but Indonesians and other nationalities travelling to and from Jayapura. PNG and Indonesian solders guard the border.
Now with a surge in Covid-19 cases predicted for Indonesia, the possibility of the dreaded virus entering PNG from West Papua is a concern.
From WHO (World Health Organisation) statistics, the virus has spread to all 34 of Indonesia’s provinces. In Papua, there are 240 confirmed cases.
State of Emergency Controller and Police Commissioner David Manning said precautions have to be taken at the border areas to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The border posts lack health surveillance, monitoring and quarantine facilities so these daily illegal crossings could become an entry point for Covid-19 into PNG.
Border security is an essential component of national security.
Border controls are measures taken by a country to monitor or regulate its borders. Border controls are put in place to control the movement of people, animals and goods into as well as out of a country. Sadly, this is not happening at our border spots which was said to be an entry point for illegal guns and drugs along the Papua New Guinea-Australia-Indonesia borders and the Highlands region.
Overtime, we have highlighted the plight of the struggles of those tasked to man the post.
Government workers are unwilling to live and work there because the concerned areas lack government services such as health and education.
Some 80 per cent of PNG’s population live in rural areas, where access to basic services such as healthcare and education remains limited.
Health centres and schools are often cut off from supply chains for months. Physical isolation is a major challenge for the government in expanding access to and maintaining basic social services.
Transporting of illegal cargoes along the international border of PNG has always been a concern for police.
Seafarers involved in this trade know that PNG police do not have boats to patrol many of the outer-laying islands, hence they take advantage of the situation.
If the Government wants to have specialised officers on the ground providing service for the rural population then it should improve the planning and funding for maintenance of the national highway network and develop a national infrastructure strategy to strengthen PNG’s freight and logistics systems.
Only then, officers will be comfortable to live and work there with their families.