More awarded citizenship

By Clifford Faiparik in Kiunga, Western
A large West Papuan refugee community in Papua New Guinea yesterday renounced their Indonesian citizenship to become PNG citizens at the East Awin refugee camp in Western.
This camp established in 1984 has 690 West Papuans who were issued PNG citizenship certificates by the PNG Immigration officers.
So far Immigration officers have issued a total of 1093 citizenship certificates to West Papuans in Western.
On Monday, 403 were issued their certificates in Kiunga.
These West Papuans from Indonesia had crossed the PNG –Indonesian border when fleeing political persecution from the Indonesian government.
They had fled after the Dutch colonial government handed over Irian Jaya (Indonesia’s Papua province today) in the early 1960s to the Indonesian government.
Acting Chief Migration Officer Solomon Kantha said during the citizenship certificate ceremony in East Awin that they were now PNG citizens and must abide by PNG laws.
West Papuan leader Arnold Umap who spoke on behalf of the recipients, thanked Papua New Guinea for allowing them to become citizens.