According to the UN Refugee Agency, several thousand West Papuan refugees stay in Papua New Guinea along the Fly river only, the second longest river running through the half-island nation’s western provinces. Located on the other half of the island of New Guinea, West Papua is a militarized territory, the site of a long-term conflict between Indonesia and indigenous Papuans seeking self-determination. Founded in the early 1970s, the Papuan National Liberation Army (TPN) conducts low-level armed attacks against Indonesian security forces and is characterized by fragmentations and factions of different priorities. An estimated 11,000 West Papuans fled east into PNG to escape violence, political turmoil and economic discontent over the last decades. The International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based nonprofit, reports regularly on a spate of violence in West Papua and warned that economic marginalization of the indigenous population would further fuel the conflict.
West Papua is a biodiversity hotspot with almost 18,000 species of flora and fauna. Central to the ongoing conflict with Indonesia is the Grasberg mine containing the world’s largest reserve of copper and gold. The mine dumps vast quantities of toxic residue downstream into the rivers and the sea causing an environmental disaster. Adding to that, environmental damage caused by copper mining in PNG affects thousands of Papuan refugees without receiving any support from the government or the mining company. Roughly 90 million tons of toxic waste is being dumped in the Fly river annually by the Ok Tedi mine, according to the company’s own environmental assessments. The river rays are now camouflaged to match the color of the sand. Mine sediment causes river beds to rise, forcing mine-contaminated water onto surrounding fields where it has killed up to 3000 square km of vegetation in a phenomenon known as die-back. Some of the border settlements of Papuan refugees have become severely affected by flooding associated with sediment build-up in the rivers due to mining activities, the UN Refugee Agency explained.
West Papua is a biodiversity hotspot with almost 18,000 species of flora and fauna. Central to the ongoing conflict with Indonesia is the Grasberg mine containing the world’s largest reserve of copper and gold. The mine dumps vast quantities of toxic residue downstream into the rivers and the sea causing an environmental disaster. Adding to that, environmental damage caused by copper mining in PNG affects thousands of Papuan refugees without receiving any support from the government or the mining company. Roughly 90 million tons of toxic waste is being dumped in the Fly river annually by the Ok Tedi mine, according to the company’s own environmental assessments. The river rays are now camouflaged to match the color of the sand. Mine sediment causes river beds to rise, forcing mine-contaminated water onto surrounding fields where it has killed up to 3000 square km of vegetation in a phenomenon known as die-back. Some of the border settlements of Papuan refugees have become severely affected by flooding associated with sediment build-up in the rivers due to mining activities, the UN Refugee Agency explained.