Foreign Affairs under Mircoscope

THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has come under fire over the manner in which it has been dishing out visas to non-citizens entering the country.

Weeks ago and during an official visit to Madang, Minister for Commerce, Trade and Industry Richard Maru had during a meeting with members of the business community lashed had his say on the matter while this week in Madang a senior lawyer Thomas Moore Ilaisa of Thomas More Ilaisa Lawyers.

Mr Maru had during his visit stated there to be a need for tougher laws to be introduced to screen visitors coming in. His remarks were made in light of the incomplete multi-million kina hotel in the National Capital District after the deal with a Koren Investor went begging.

He said how the company officials concerned were granted visas let alone an Investment Promotion Authority registration ought to be questioned.

He said this was especially when even after the company despite being given state land in which to construct this hotel and even a tax holiday, was found to have no money.
 

He said the country and he as the minister for commerce and trade had a problem on his hand-that being to try and complete this abandoned project.

However, he added that with PNG set to host the 2018 APEC meeting that he would be working to having it completed.

“PNG has agreed to host the APEC meeting in 2018 and to host a meeting of this magnitude we will need at least 6,000 hotel rooms to accommodate our visitors. 

“In light of this we need a body to screen and double check all applicants wanting to enter our country. In the case of investors, they we must learn from this incident and ensure those coming in are here to genuinely do business and not friends of politicians,” he said.

This week Mr Ilaisa also took a shot at the same department also questioning their screening process when granting visas to non-citizens in light of a adultery proceeding that has been filed by a Madang resident on her husband who is now allegedly having an adulterous affair with another woman who entered the country on a “student visa”.

Mr Illaisa explained that his client a Filipino expatriate is legally married with three children.
Her husband, also of the same nationality, had relocated to Mt Hagen where he presently employed as the branch manager.

It is alleged that his client’s husband , who is also a self professed minister of the Bible Fellowship Church in Mt Hagen, had met up with this “Filipino student’ and were now involved.

He stated the “student” was aged 27, still legally married to her husband back in the Phillipines with two children.
He said on evidence his client had managed to source that the mother of three had decided to file several proceedings against her husband including adultery, claims for maintenance, an annulment of the marriage between the two and custody over their three children.

He said the latter being that the husband had allegedly for the past eight months neglected his responsibility as the father of the three children he had left behind in Madang.

He alleged that the woman who had entered the country under the pretext of being a student was now seeking employment in Mt Hagen.

“The question that needs to be asked is how was this woman, granted the student visa, especially as now we are hearing this woman is now seeking employment in country,” he said.

The Madang district court and following an application which was filed by Bernie Meten of Meten Lawyers on behalf of the defendant ruled to have the matter transferred to the Mt Hagen District Court.

This was on the basis and court rules on Adultry that both defendents were based in Mt Hagen and that the offence is alleged to have been committed in the Western Highlands.

Source: Post Courier Online (Weekender Edition)