Asylum seekers PNG

In a statement, the Royal PNG Constabulary said soldiers fired several shots into the air and indiscriminately assaulted policemen, PNG Immigration officers, other service providers and asylum seekers.

The incident occurred on Friday, April 14, at about 6.30pm at the Manus Regional Processing Centre.

Manus provincial police commander, Senior Inspector David Lapu, said a group of drunken soldiers, in retaliation for one of their colleagues, who was allegedly assaulted by an asylum seeker, entered the centre, shouting and throwing objects at the asylum seekers.

Manus MP Ronny Knight said this following the alleged sexual assault of a Grade Nine student in Manus last Tuesday at the Harbour side hotel.

The alleged perpetrator has been identified as asylum seeker Rajeev Rajendran, from Sri Lanka (31). He was arrested and charged over the weekend by police and appeared in court on Monday. 

Knight said this (sexual assault) is a result of nothing being done to move the asylum seekers and refugees to a country that will settle them.

“This is one case we have before the law. Many have been unreported,” Knight said.

Opposition Leader Don Polye is calling on the National Government to send these asylum seekers to other countries.

Polye said this must be decided immediately by the Australia and Papua New Guinea governments.

“There are many reports coming out of this centre that continue to destroy PNG’s international reputation,” stated Polye.

“The centre is not properly facilitated and the exercise of processing the asylum seekers is getting too slow.

Lawyer representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration Rimbink Pato and the Chief Migration Officer, Mataio Rabura moved an application before a three-judge Supreme Court bench today, seeking the dismissal of the case which the Asylum seekers filed last year.