Papua New Guinea's national security advisers revealed this week that refugees from a terrorist zone in Asia are paying to be smuggled into PNG.
As reported by the Post Courier Online, the refugees are paying 'up to K30,000 to be smuggled into Papua New Guinea and given a job'.The revelation was made by PNG's national security advisers after '13 Tamil refugees who entered PNG illegally were sent back to their home country, Sri Lanka' after being 'deemed by Foreign Affairs and other national security agencies as a threat to PNG and Australia'. The 13 are banned from returning to PNG again.
'The intelligence officers, in confirming the deportations, warned that human smuggling kingpins and facilitators based in Hong Kong were communicating with agents in PNG and collecting about K30,000 from each of these people, promising them jobs in PNG' and that some 'were told to pay about K80,000 if they were interested in going to Australia where they were promised a better lifestyle and jobs'.
According to the report, intelligence and security officers stated that from their interviews, the refugees 'admitted there was a kingpin collecting more than K28,000 to K30,000 from those who were interested in working in PNG and these people were paying K80,000 with promises of jobs and a better life style in Australia". They also admitted that 'they came in numbers but could not spell out where they were being accommodated'.
'Security officers said from the interviews they found that there was a second person and some Papua New Guineans getting a lot of money from bringing these people in'.