New Ireland Gov't calls on visitors to respect New Ireland People

The New Ireland Provincial Government has kicked off a series of awareness programs on lawlessness in public areas, particularly market areas. This comes after the province has seen an increase of migrants from other parts of the country, taking up space reserved for locals. This includes the illegal squatting on Government and Traditional land.

The first outreach was staged on Saturday (07th July 2018) at the Kavieng town market. Speaking at the event was the Chief executive officer for administration and Public order Roboam Paka and First secretary to the Governor, Robin Brown.

“This exercise is to basically make the people aware of the upsurge in the criminal activities in the town and in the province. Awareness will continue next week into Konos, Lakurumau and  Namatanai markets,”said Mr. Paka.
“On Monday we will have a big law and order meeting in the province, where all community leaders government officials and settlement people are going to be here discussing ways to address the issues is especially important when the province will be moving into Tourism.When you compare New Ireland with the rest of the country we are still very peaceful, we can’t allow anything serious to happen here.”

According to recent crime reports the province has experienced an increase in crime over the past six months, this includes armed holdups all involving migrants.“By nature New Irelanders are very peaceful people, and the inflow of people from outside has brought in with them their criminal behavior. If you come to New Ireland and break the law, you are out, if you come to New Ireland and disrespect our people, you are unwelcome and you will be sent home.” said CEO Paka.

Meantime New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan also made time to mingle with the locals at the Kavieng Market while the awareness was being carried out.He was happy to see that his administration was already implementing his instruction for the awareness which he relayed on Friday during the swearing in of the province’s new Tourism board.“When tourists come to New Ireland we want them to see a friendly people, which is now being bastardised by the influx of people from outside, particularly in our market place, the visitors need to observe and respect the tradition and cultures of the people of New Ireland,” emphasized Sir Julius.

The New Ireland Provincial Government already has a vagrancy act in place and Sir Julius has made it clear on numerous occasions that he intends enforce the act to protect the rights of his people.

Under the New Ireland declaration which is a road map of the goals and objectives of the New Ireland government it states: We declare to create a society in which all citizens are safe and secure and can live without fear of abuse, criminal activity or corruption, and we will improve law enforcement detect abuse, eliminate violence and enforce vagrancy and repatriation laws.