New immigration bill for debate this year [1]
Thursday, May 30, 2002 - 11:00. Updated on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 14:00.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.
Tonga’s Ministry of Immigration plans to introduce a new Immigration Policy this year, and a new Immigration Bill will be tabled into Parliament during this year’s session.
Susana Fotu, the head of the Visa and Naturalisation Section of the Ministry said that the new policy would address a number of immigration issues, such as Prohibited Immigrants, the need for a Permanent Residency and Long Term Residency visas, and the issue of Tongans with double nationalities.
“With regards to nationality the new Immigration Bill is advocating one nationality for Tongans”, Susana said. “This means that you cannot hold another country’s passport and at the same time applying for a Tongan citizenship.
“What the Government wants is to ensure that once you become nationalised as a Tongan and you take the benefits of being Tongan, you also take its hardships as well, which means that you have to apply for a visa to every single country”, said Susana. “The Government also wants to enforce one nationality for Tongans because there are lots of absentee property owners.”
Susana said that to be naturalised and become a Tongan citizen one was required to be a resident of Tonga for at least five years. “A language requirement means you have to sit a language test, but those people that are married to Tongans are excluded from the language test.
“The Nationality Law is closely interwoven with the Land Law, which means you cannot change the nationality law without changing the Land Law. People who are raising the issue of dual nationality should raise the Land Law first”, said Susana.
Under the government’s new Immigration Policy, two new residency visas will be introduced, a Permanent Residency Visa and a Long Term Residency Visa. Susana said that the Permanent Residency visa, “will be for people who are married to Tongans and have lived in Tonga for over 2 years. Tongans who have been naturalised and become citizens of other countries may also apply. As well as people who have legally been a resident of Tonga for over 8 years.
Permanent Residency
The duration of Permanent Residency Visa will range from five to ten years.
Susana said that the Long Term Residence Visa was for people who have made a long term business commitment in Tonga, “foreign investors, depending on how much money a person is investing in Tonga, the Tongan Immigration will grant him a long term visa so that he can set up his business and see that it grows.”
With the issue of prohibited immigrants, Susana, said that there were about 20 prohibited immigrants in Tonga at the moment, and it was a matter of great concern because their problem was now becoming Tonga’s problem. “The problem with the prohibited immigrants is that the Government does not have the funds to send them back to where they come from, and some come from as far away as Africa.” Susana said that the government’s solution to the problem was to allow them to work while part of their salaries are deducted to pay for their tickets back to their home country. The one strict restriction imposed, is that they are not “allowed to marry Tongans”.
The prohibited immigrants issue over the years has been realised to be too difficult for small Pacific Island countries to deal with, and it has become a regional issue. A foreigner who arrives in Tonga from, say via Samoa, and later becomes a Prohibited Immigrant by overstaying his visa cannot be deported back to Samoa, because they won’t allow him to land there, so he has to be sent back to Tonga.
New passport
Susana said that a new Tongan passport would be introduced by the end of 2003. “These will be machine-readable passports that are scanned by the little black box at the arrival terminal. This provides the Immigration with every detail that passengers often fill in their arrival form in just 2 seconds. Thus allowing the Immigration to track every person that comes into Tonga on any given visa, whether it is works visa, employment visa or even a transit visa, thus detecting illegal immigrants.
“After the September 11 crisis there was quite a lot of interest on people coming from certain areas, but it does not form a large part of Tonga’s tourism population.”
Susana said that there are countries including Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan and Iraq that need a visa before they arrive in Tonga.
No asylum
With other countries that have close ties with Tonga, and which form a large part of Tonga’s tourist population like New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany, do not need to apply for a transit visa.
With regards to asylum seekers Susana said that Tonga had already got a clear-cut policy that stated that Tonga will not allow any asylum seekers into the Kingdom.