Regional
Human rights efforts challenged
Monday 16 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s support for the death penalty and its struggles with gender equality and police brutality have been criticised at a United Nations review in Geneva.
Intervention in West Papua urged
Sunday 15 May 2016 | Published in Regional
WEST PAPUA– The chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Manasseh Sogavare, says the regional body is pushing for an urgent intervention by the United Nations in West Papua.
Mother, baby medivaced from Nauru
Sunday 15 May 2016 | Published in Regional
NAURU – A young Somali refugee woman is on life support in a Brisbane hospital after she and her newborn son were medically evacuated from Nauru in a critical condition.
PNG plane crash site looted
Sunday 15 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The investigation into a plane crash in Papua New Guinea’s Western province last month which killed 12 people has been compromised because the wreckage was looted soon after the crash.
More jobs on Norfolk than people to fill them
Sunday 15 May 2016 | Published in Regional
NORFOLK ISLAND –The executive director of Australia’s administration on Norfolk Island is disputing claims of widespread job losses in the island’s government.
Sounds of freedom in West Papua
Sunday 15 May 2016 | Published in Regional
Benny Wenda is West Papua’s independence leader, International Spokesman for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and founder of the Free West Papua Campaign. He lives in exile in the UK from where he wrote this article for Huffington Post.
Samoa and Fiji have high hopes in Paris
Saturday 14 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PARIS – Fiji aren’t taking anything for granted going into this weekend’s penultimate round of the World Sevens Series in Paris. The defending series champs lead South Africa by eight points with two round remaining and are well-placed to retain their overall title.
Prasad says accounts body now toothless
Friday 13 May 2016 | Published in Regional
FIJI – Fiji’s deputy opposition leader Biman Prasad says he has effectively been removed from a key parliamentary body , highlighting a further erosion of democracy and accountability in the country.
PNG fraud squad back in business
Friday 13 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Detectives working for Papua New Guinea’s police fraud squad have been allowed access to their office and files again, but under tight conditions.
Samoa college given ultimatum
Friday 13 May 2016 | Published in Regional
SAMOA – The future of Samoa’s 92-year-old Avele College remains uncertain with the government gives the Avele College Old Pupil Association (ACOPA) and teachers until next Monday to come up with an “undertaking” to find a solution to inter-school fighting.
Violence feared from refugees
Friday 13 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA– A Manus Island MP says he fears the release of asylum seekers and refugees from the detention centre may lead to violence. Papua New Guinea immigration authorities said the 898 men in Australia’s offshore processing centre on Manus Island are no longer in detention. The men can now come and go as they please and can visit the main town, Lorengau. This is to comply with a Supreme Court ruling last month that found their detention was illegal. Australia has denied responsibility for the freed detainees welfare, despite claims they are lucky not to have been “chopped up” by locals wielding machetes. Papua New Guinea chief migration officer Mataio Rabura told Fairfax Media that detainees were now free to leave the Manus Island centre after that nation’s Supreme Court ordered the facility was illegal and unconstitutional, and the detention must end. He said asylum seekers and refugees at the detention centre had been encouraged to relocate to a nearby transit facility “where they can go and come”, adding that detainees were being bused in and out of the detention centre each day. The detainees on Manus Island say they now have the option to catch one of three buses into the main town each morning, but must sign agreements taking responsibility for their own safety. They are not allowed to walk out of the centre, because it is on a PNG naval base. They also say they may stay at an Australian Immigration-run transit centre overnight. But Manus MP Ronnie Knight said residents feared they will have to deal with unwanted bad behaviour, particularly from detainees harassing local women. “There’s been incidences already where we’ve had these people chasing young girls,” he said. Knight was unable to say if those involved in recent incidents were newly released detainees or those who already lived at the transit centre, because “they all look the same”. “It’s been happening for some time. They are assaulting and chasing women, young local]boys have been chasing them back with bush knives, machetes, iron bars,” Knight said. Knight claimed the detainees had been spared from being “chopped up” because Manus Island was a “peaceful” place compared with elsewhere in PNG. “If it was the highlands there would have been many deaths already,” he said. For their part, the detainees say many of them are afraid to leave the centre, because they fear being attacked by locals. Papua New Guinea’s deputy chief Migration Officer, Esther Gaegaming, said: “No asylum seeker or refugee is in detention. We are continuing to work towards fully implementing the orders of the Supreme Court.” But refugee Behrouz Boochani said the changes had not allowed true freedom of movement. “They are still controlling us,” he said. “Even when we want to go from Oscar to Delta (internal compounds) we have to give our ID cards to the officers “It means we are not free to walk.” Boochani said the refugees and asylum seekers were still being separated inside the centre and those deemed to be refugees could not visit the compounds where men who were unsuccessful in their refugee applications were housed. The men are only allowed to leave Manus Island if they sign an agreement to be resettled in PNG, and the ABC understands only eight men have done that. Of those, three have returned to Manus Island, saying they had been robbed and threatened when they were resettled in the mainland town of Lae. They say the could not earn enough money to support themselves. Two refugees who left Manus Island were arrested upon returning – one for trying to get back into the transit centre for refugees and another for repeatedly asking for a phone and credit to call his family. Another refugee remains in hospital in Lae after being violently robbed twice in two days. Only three men are still working off the island , while a fourth is about to start his new job. Manus Island MP Ron Knight said most “freed” detainees were too “wary” to move to the transit centre and expressed concern about their release. “You have young guys locked up for so long, they get involved in consuming home brew, womanising and involved in marijuana offences,” he said, adding island police were “weak”. He said there were cultural differences between locals and detainees, describing the latter as “pretty aggressive peo
Marine biologist promotes respect for sharks
Thursday 12 May 2016 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – While many people are terrified of sharks, the Kiwi man dubbed “shark man” regularly swims with the marine animals, and has never been attacked.
City mayor felt force of anti-Maori racism
Thursday 12 May 2016 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – As the New Zealand provincial city of New Plymouth finds itself again accused of redneck behaviour, two would-be Maori councillors say they don’t believe in Maori wards either.
Counselling needed for child victims
Thursday 12 May 2016 | Published in Regional
FIJI – There are urgent calls in Fiji for child psychologists to help deal with an increase in child sexual abuse victims.
Refugee dies in Nauru hospital
Thursday 12 May 2016 | Published in Regional
NAURU – A 26-year-old Bangladeshi refugee has died from suspected heart failure in Nauru’s hospital, Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIPB) says.
Contradictions over centre closure
Thursday 12 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Australia and Papua New Guinea continue to contradict each other over the legal requirements of a recent Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruling on the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island.
Pacific Games: Trans-Tasman nations inclusion discussed
Wednesday 11 May 2016 | Published in Regional
PACIFIC – The Pacific Games Council will this week debate a proposal to expand Australia and New Zealand’s participation in the Games at their General Assembly in Port Vila.
20th anniversary game fishing event a success
Wednesday 11 May 2016 | Published in Regional
SAMOA – When the winners of Samoa International Game Fishing Association’s 20th anniversary game fishing tournament received their prizes last Saturday, the joy in their faces could not be overlooked.
Former All Blacks coach to mentor Warriors
Wednesday 11 May 2016 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – World Cup-winning former All Blacks coach Graham Henry has taken his talents to the rugby league code to team up with the struggling Warriors in the NRL.
Asylum seeker to be provided abortion
Wednesday 11 May 2016 | Published in Regional
AUSTRALIA – Australia’s immigration minister Peter Dutton will not appeal against a federal Court finding that he breached his duty of care to an asylum seeker who became pregnant after being raped on Nauru, and exposed her to serious medical and legal risks.
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