Police nab Vanimo illegals and motorists

National, Normal
Source:

The National- Tuesday, January 25, 2011

 By ANGELINE KARIUS

MORE than K100,000 has been raised in revenue by the Motor Vehicle Insurance  Ltd (MVIL) office in Vanimo, West Sepik. 

MVIL branch team leader Martha Geeji said it was the first time it had raised such amount in a short time.

She said most of these payments mostly came from vehicles owned by logging companies currently operating in the country. 

Geeji said last Friday MVIL had collected more than K50,000. 

“The revenue raised is the result of the great work carried out by the members of the operation Sunset Merona,” she said. 

According to reports on the ground most vehicles belonging to logging companies had been on the road without proper registration and safety stickers thus breaching traffic laws. 

Meanwhile, six illegal immigrants were deported from Vanimo, West Sepik to Indonesia last Thursday, after breaching PNG immigration laws. 

The six males of Indonesian descent were intercepted by operation Sunset Merona at a road block along the Wewak to Vanimo highway after security checks revealed they had no proper paperwork, including visas and passports. 

The National understands that the men only had sea man’s passports from a shipping vessel arriving at Rai coast, Madang, and were travelling to cross the PNG-Indonesian border when caught.  

It is understood that the six were apprehended and charged with breaching immigration laws and brought to the Vanimo district court for trial. 

They were fined K5,000 each, however, upon the discretion of the magistrate, they paid told to pay K3,500 each. 

So far 12 immigrants of Asian origin have been apprehended by Sunset Merona team and fined by the Vanimo district court.