Difficult to stop people crossing border: Manning

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
STATE of Emergency Controller David Manning says it is very difficult to stop people from West Sepik crossing the border to Indonesia in the face of an outbreak of the Covid-19 in Jayapura.
“While we have been advising our people not to cross the PNG-Indonesian border since we closed it in January because of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Jayapura (22 positive cases so far and increasing), people continue to cross illegally back and forth for various reasons including vanilla trading,” he said.
He said there was an increase in demand for vanilla beans, now selling at K2,000 per kg, which was too hard to resist for farmers in East Sepik. They are willing to take the risk to cross the border to Jayapura.
“We are boosting our awareness campaigns in the border areas in light of the increased illegal border crossings,” he said.
Comm Manning said they were also looking into a report that three boats carrying people and cargo from Jayapura crossed into Warapu village in Aitape, West Sepik on May 12.
The boats returned to Jayapura after unloading their cargoes.
“Those are the types of challenges we face when unauthorised border crossings take place,” he said.
Comm Manning said he had approved the travel for three Port Moresby-based Indonesian embassy staff to Jayapura last Sunday.