Migration chief clarifies funding

By REBECCA KUKU
Funding for the Papua New Guinea Humanitarian Programme previously known as the refugee resettlement arrangement (RRA) was held by Deloitte, says Immigration and Citizenship Authority chief migration officer Stanis Hulahau.
Hulahau said once he confirmed services provided and signed off, Deloitte would then release the funds to Chatswood (PNG) which was the case managers for the programme, to make payments to service providers.
“These services included the Pacific International Hospital for health; City Service Apartments and MRT Holdings Limited for accommodations; and Namora Nuiguini Limited which provided groceries/vouchers and an allowance for the refugees; Homa Security for security and Lau Transport Services for transportation,” he said.
According to documents sighted by The National, Pacific International Hospital is owed K90 million whilst most of the service providers were owed between K15 million and K20 million.
Hulahau said the Australia department of home affairs funded the programme for two years – from 2021 to 2022.
“After the Manus Detention Centre was closed in 2019, the immigration minister at that time, Westley Nukundj, and Australia’s home affairs minister at that time, Peter Dutton, signed a ministerial agreement for the 140 refugees and 10 non-refugees to remain in Port Moresby under the PNG Humanitarian Programme, under the terms that the Australian government would fund the programme,” he said.
“Following that agreement, on Jan 1, 2021, Immigration and Citizenship Authority assumed full responsibility for the management, care and administration of persons transferred to Papua New Guinea under the regional resettlement arrangement between PNG and Australia.” Hulahau explained that the funding provided by Australia was expected to cover services to be sustained for two years “and the funding was provided on forecasts for caseload reduction over the course of two years and it was anticipated that most remaining persons would depart to the US or Canada”.
“Funding was broken down into components, for three months each, with the amount of funding reduced as time went by, anticipating that the refugees would be resettled over time, and by 2022, the programme would end,” he said.
“But we did not anticipate the Coronavirus, or that the borders would be closed and you would need vaccination cards to travel and many of the refugees did not want to be vaccinated at that time and so remained in the country.”
Meanwhile, funding provided by the Australian government for the programme has since been exhausted and service providers have not been paid since last November.