Chief Migration Officer Solomon Kantha has raised concerns on police failing to prosecute cases of corrupt immigration officers referred to them, and police officers colluding with unlawful non-citizens to prevent their deportation.
Mr Kantha was referring to a case where two immigration officers were sacked in April for fraudulently issuing a visa and were going to be prosecuted by police investigator attached to Immigration and Citizenship Authority but a police officer attached to the Gordon Minor Crimes demanded to take over the case.
Mr Kantha was disappointed that the police officer had been requesting allowances and asking ICA to extend the visa of an unlawful Bangladeshi national whose visa was cancelled by the minister for the person to be deported.
“It is disappointing that this officer is preventing ICA from lawfully carrying out its duties and seemed to be serving the interest of this unlawful non-citizen enabling this person to remain in the country unlawfully. The Bangladeshi’s lawyer has written to us complaining of extortion by police and a former immigration officer,” he said.
Mr Kantha said the new minister and Acting Police Commissioner have a big challenge ahead of them to clean up the police force and weed out corrupt officers who are working against national interest and preventing other State agencies from implementing their duties.
Mr Kantha said any immigration officer engaged in corrupt practices would be sacked immediately “as we work to modernise our department and take back PNG there is no room for corruption in ICA”.
“I have written to Police Minister Bryan Kramer and Acting Police Commissioner David Manning to investigate and deal with this officer, and I hope that swift action is taken against such officers,” he said.