Travel restrictions on Fijians tipped to top NZ’s new Fiji sanctions
Reports in www.tvnz.co.nz say that the NZ government is staying tight lipped about sanctions against Fiji, although ONE News understands it involves further travel bans and restrictions on aid.
A NZ Government Cabinet committee met on Tuesday to consider sanctions drawn up by Foreign Affairs in light of the expulsion of New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Fiji, Michael Green, with Fiji’s self-appointed Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama declaring Green persona non grata on June 14 for allegedly meddling in domestic affairs and meeting with the deposed SDL party.
An announcement on sanctions was expected at around midday on yesterday, but was put on hold until after Cabinet meets next Monday.
However, ONE News understands a visa ban to New Zealand will apply not just to military bosses, which is currently in effect, but will extend to heads of all government departments and statutory boards.
“In essence rolling out to others who are clearly complicit in what is happening there,” says Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Top government officials will also no longer be able to transit through New Zealand.
Fijians travelling to most Pacific countries transit through Auckland international airport a transit ban means they’ll have to go through Australia instead making travel more expensive and time consuming.
It is also understood that while aid to Fiji will continue, it will be arranged to bypass the military-led government going straight to where it is most needed.
“We said what they did was serious and significant so our response needs to be well considered,” says Clark.
However, Bainimarama’s brother Savanaia Bainimarama, who lives in the Bay of Islands, says Fiji needs help, not a “heavy handed” approach from outsiders.
But despite the looming sanctions, Fiji remains positive of a resolution.
“We all need to live together and let’s try and work out an amicable way forward,” says Fiji Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khayum.
It is still uncertain whether the sanctions will involve family members of Fiji’s military-led regime, some of whom live in New Zealand.
Report by The Mole and www.tvnz.co.nz
John Alwyn-Jones
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