Media important: Official

 GOVERNMENT initiatives to engage media over refugee policies will enhance correct reporting and raise awareness about refugee issue in the country.

The Manus regional processing centre manager Clarence Parisau told journalists in Lae this week that media was an important tool to educate and inform the community.

It was therefore, crucial for reporters to understand the underlying issues and challenges concerning refugees and government policies, Parisau said.

He said the briefing in Lae was to provide an overview of initiatives and achievements of the Government to address refugee protection in the country including five key policy principles of PNG’s national refugee policy.

However, Scott Waide of television station EMTV was critical over why the Government neglected neighboring West Papua refugees for almost 40 years whilst their needs were regarded different from asylum seekers under the regional resettlement agreement (RRA) between PNG and Australian. 

“The Government needs to convince the media in terms of its policies comparing the West Papua case and the RRA idea including existing local socio-economic issues, welfare and its benefits,” Waide said.    

Deputy chief migration officer for refugee division Esther Gaegaming said prior to the RRA concept the Government had no policy directive or no refugee policy guidelines despite its international obligation under the 1951 Convention on status of refugees and the related 1967 protocol. 

Gaegaming said that RRA idea had awakened the Government as a catalyst to ensure West Papuans acquire citizenship status. 

However, their regional background as Melanesians makes them dissimilar to other asylum seekers.