Promising future at immigrations

IMMIGRATION division can be likened to a front doorman of any nation, a security guard if you like.
It greets every legal entrant into the country at the door. It checks to ensure the visitor is friendly, that he or she brings no threat to humans, animal or plants, that the person is genuine and has the credentials he or she claims to have and that PNG will benefit by that person’s presence.
Likewise, the doorman is there to say goodbye to all who depart, ensuring that they are leaving with nothing that is of value to the country.
Of course, the departing or returning citizen must pass through the doorman and suffer checks to ensure he or she too is not bringing threats or taking away valuables from the country. It is from immigrations that a citizen gets travel documents such as passports and travel permits.
This process, which begins at the lodging of visa applications and involves cross agency checks with Labour Department’s work permit division, National Intelligence Organisation and, if necessary, police, Internal Revenue Commission and the Investment Promotion Authority on the domestic level as well as with PNG’s foreign missions and, possibly, international bodies like Interpol where necessary.
It is a key agency of government but, for a long time, it has been one of the most neglected divisions of the Foreign Affairs Department.
Shunned as a place where corruption and graft was rife, this was the place that non-performing, or stood down or naughty officers, got sent to. It became a dumping yard for foreign affair’s unattached officers, and those that were not in the favour of the powers that be at Somare Foundation Haus. “Out to immigrations you go and then out into the cold” seemed to be the unwritten and unspoken rebuke.
And, as the saying goes: “You get what you deserve.” So, PNG suffered dearly right there at the front door.
Foreigners rushed in, not by boatloads landing in the middle of the night on secluded beaches, but right past the sleeping or, often, very wide awake and most encouraging doorman. Conversely, genuine and honest people wishing to do business in the country, and who refused to pay the bribes asked for, were refused. What missed opportunities went with them is hard to calculate.
What valuables got shipped out illegally through the same process, we cannot begin to imagine.
It is something of a miracle that none of the deadly communicable diseases traversing the world visited PNG’s shores in this time for the good of our plant, animal and human population. It is a miracle for there exists none of the stringent checks right there at the door to first detect and then treat or prevent the spread of any deadly bacteria or virus.
That is all about to change.
Last week, Parliament passed the Papua New Guinea Immigrations and Citizenship Service Act 2010.
With its passage, immigration is severed as a division of Foreign Affairs and Trade Department and becomes an independent, self-accounting statutory authority with its own budget; reporting only to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration.
The country is poised for an influx of foreigners such as never experienced before with the commencement of the PNG liquefied natural gas project and other major resource developments.
The demand for visas and entry permits is growing at a rate never experienced before. There are some 50,000 applications for visas pending.
The service will require additional staff, funding and equipment to perform its functions well. As a statutory authority, it is hoped that can happen. At the same time, the service can turn over substantial revenue in the various fees applicable. Once, this used to be diluted into departmental revenue. Now, it will have to be fully accounted for and that will tell the nation what it might have been missing out on in the past.
The change should allow the organisation to grow to meet increased demand while, at the same time, providing an environment of professionalism and integrity as minister Sam Abal told Parliament last week.
It is also important that the minister and his team ensured the new act does not repeal the existing migration, passports or citizenship legislation.  Rather, it complements and interacts with these laws.
The timing is spot on and Abal and his team have to be congratulated for taking the bold initiative.