By Natasha Ovoi
Urban Drift is a major contribution to the increase of illegal activities in Lae, Morobe Province.
This was expressed by the Provincial Police Commander Chief Superintendent Chris Kunyanban in his comments following a marijuana bust this week in Nasuapum village close to Nadzab Airport, in the Morobe Province.
He elaborated that people are moving from the rural settings into town areas to do illegal activities to sustain their living.
His statement correlates to a publication by the PNGNRI in October of last year that while expressing that urban drift is a challenge for the country at present, also outlined a reason for urban drift being an absence of income-earning opportunities. In this findings, the researcher Dr. Philip Kavan expressed that Rural-Urban migration is a result of the absence of income-earning opportunities in rural areas as the living conditions in rural environments are tough.
“The increasing population in urban areas has presented many challenges such as increased unemployment, squatter settlements, the lack of service provision, and increased crime” this is stated under the UN-Habitat Country Information for Papua New Guinea.
Testament to this is a street vendor who had left her home province in the Eastern Highlands and moved to Port Moresby in hopes to find a job or an income opportunity to sustain herself and her son. Apato Negi is an unemployed single mother of one who sells things like school stationary on roadsides of Port Moresby to make a living.
In an address to mitigate such situations , Dr. Puka Temu shared sentiments on the floor of Parliament on the 8th of this month, expressing that as much as the country wishes to develop its city premises, it should not deviate focus from the districts and stations within the country for such offers and alternatives that discourages Urban Drift.
“We must not forget the districts and the stations” he stressed.
While the government of the day embarks on the policies and means to encourage socio-economic development, a response given by the deputy Prime Minister John Rosso in Parliament on October of last year still stands, the government is looking at re-introducing the Vagrancy Act to curb the rise in crime and lawlessness in urban centers around the country.
This was said in response to Kairuku MP Peter Isoaimo’s question recently, “Does the government have a plan to solve mass migration and restrict the movement of people to curb crime”.
