PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A refugee on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island says the fight that broke out between detainees and guards in one of the detention centre’s mess halls was sparked by verbal abuse from security personnel. The detainees objected to a barrier erected around the serving area which they say caused them to queue for up to an hour to receive their meals.

The refugee from Iran, Amir Taghinia, said the fight happened last Saturday in Mike compound, which houses men who have been denied refugee status. “I haven’t even seen these things in the movies in the prisons,” he said.

“The reason that made guys angry was the treatment of the guards, provoking the guys, using offensive words. There were a few of the guys injured. There was apparently a case of broken nose which was hit by a chair in the face.”

Taghinia said he was not aware if any of the guards were injured in the fight. The brawl lasted several minutes until the guards retreated outside the compound.

Trade ban confounds Fiji

FIJI – Fiji’s trade minister Faiyaz Koya says he has no idea why his PNG counterpart Richard Maru has called for a complete ban on trade with Fiji.

Maru last week called on the PNG National Executive Council to stop all imports from Fiji because Fiji had failed to justify its continued refusal to allow PNG goods into its markets.

However the Fiji Sun reported Faiyaz Koya as having said Fiji would not circumvent or bend its biosecurity laws.

Koya said Fiji and Papua New Guinea were part of the Melanesian Spearhead Group agreement which had a facilitation aspect with respect to biosecurity.

He said this was where the matter should be addressed.

In calling for sanctions against Fiji, PNG’s Richard Maru said that while Fiji had agreed to accept PNG’s bully beef-Ox-Palm, Trukai Rice and biscuits, this was only for household quantities and not commercial volumes, which PNG was pushing for.

Police seeking ‘bad apples’

VANUATU – Vanuatu’s Commissioner of Labour Lionel Kaluat has asked Vanuatu police and the Australian Federal Police to locate the five Vanuatu seasonal workers who have absconded from their official place of work in Victoria.

He wants the workers returned to Vanuatu without delay.

The commissioner said the five men were now illegal immigrants as the Australian government had cancelled their visas.

He said there were suspicions the men were now with another contractor in Victoria but this had to be confirmed.

Kaluat said he suspected a Tongan man had lured them away with a promise to find them work on another farm with better pay.

But he said the men’s contracts were only valid with their official employer and became invalid the moment they breached it.

He said it was not right that “five bad apples should be allowed to spoil the whole bag”.

Vanuatu has more than 1000 seasonal workers working on farms in Australia