Islands Business - Flight scheduled to fly out Fijians aborted

PORT MORESBY, PNG ----- An aborted attempt was made to fly out the 14 Fijian guards employed by Allied Gold Limited (AGL) at its Simberi mine in New Ireland Province, Post Courier reports.

In a new twist of events Immigrations, Foreign Affairs, Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) and police authorities were put on high alert to prevent an Airlines PNG chartered aircraft from leaving Port Moresby on Saturday evening, purportedly bound for Solomon Islands with the Fijians.

The aircraft was to have left Simberi earlier in the day with the 14 Fijians and flown directly to Honiara in the Solomons via Port Moresby.

On the island tensions are high as landowners are now involved and are keeping a lookout for incoming aircraft with a view to preventing any shuttling out of the Fijians.

They are also maintaining 24-hour vigilance around the coastal areas to prevent any departure by sea as well.

This new twist of events followed the clandestine airlifting last Thursday of the Fijians back to Simberi from Port Moresby where they were being held to ascertain the validity or otherwise of their employment by AGL in court.
AGL, a week ago took out a stay order to prevent deportation of the Fijians from Simberi.
State lawyers have sought to nullify the order based on their arguments that the Fijians were illegally being employed on Simberi and should be deported.

The court has insisted on the company lawyers to present the true employment status of the Fijians.

On Saturday the Post-Courier was told that a group of government authorities were stationed within the vicinity of the Airlines PNG terminal to apprehend the Fijians on arrival. However, the flight was abandoned and police have been sent to the Island to maintain surveillance on the movement of the Fijians.