Papua New Guinea Issues - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Disputes - international

Papua New Guinea-Australia: relies on assistance from Australia to keep out illegal cross-border activities from primarily Indonesia, including goods smuggling, illegal narcotics trafficking, and squatters and secessionists

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 11,601 (Indonesia) (mid-year 2021)

IDPs: 24,000 (natural disasters, tribal conflict, inter-communal violence, development projects) (2021)

stateless persons: 9 (mid-year 2021)

Trafficking in persons

current situation: Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; women and children are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude; families may sell girls into forced marriages to settle debts, leaving them vulnerable to forced domestic service; local and Chinese men are forced to labor in logging and mining camps; migrant women from Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines are subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude at logging and mining camps, fisheries, and entertainment sites

tier rating: Tier 3 — Papua New Guinea does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; despite remaining at Tier 3, the government continued to identify some trafficking victims and a prominent trafficking case was advanced; however, the government did not provide protective services for victims and did not systematically implement its victim identification procedures; corruption among officials in the logging sector remains a problem, and they continue to facilitate sex trafficking and forced labor; no alleged traffickers were convicted; the government dedicates little financial and human resources to combat trafficking, and awareness of trafficking is low among government officials (2020)

Illicit drugs

transit point for smuggling drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine; major consumer of cannabis

NOTE: The information regarding Papua New Guinea on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Papua New Guinea 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Papua New Guinea 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.