Probe into conduct of immigration officers

National

PEOPLE involved in moving refugees around hotels in Port Moresby during the lockdown period without State of Emergency (SOE) Controller David Manning’s approval will be investigated and dealt with, Immigration and Border Security Minister Westly Nukundj says.
He told the media on Friday that Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) officers and agents had been reported to have violated SOE orders by moving more than 40 refugees from one hotel accommodation to another.
“If investigations reveal their conducts to be unlawful, they will be dealt with under the SOE laws,” Nukundj said.
“Their actions have subjected the public to security and health risks.”
Nukundj explained that neither he nor the acting Chief Migration Officer Robert Kennedy had the power to authorise the movement of refugees during the SOE period.
“We do not have the powers to authorise that except the emergency controller.
“Some of the staff within ICA, hotel owners, and agents involved saw fit to move people around without our knowledge,” he added.
Nukundj said the investigation into those involved in moving around refugees was included in the terms of reference of ICA’s internal investigation into the production of fake visas.
He said investigation into fake visas would also look at delays with processing PNG passports.
“There are issues about people lodging in applications for passports and waited for months to get their passports, and some even wait for years,” he said.

One thought on “Probe into conduct of immigration officers

  • Investigate those corrupt ICA officers & hold them responsible for defying SOE order.

    Look into this so called Passport processing, for goodness sake we are in the 21st Century & everybody needs Visa/Passport to move around. Do away with this waiting of months to process Passports.

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