Fiji regime summarily deports Pacific university head
Acting on the orders of Fiji’s Prime Minister and former military coup leader, Frank Bainimarama, authorities carried out a midnight raid at the Suva home of the vice-chancellor of the University of the South Pacific (USP) on February 3, and summarily deported him.
Up to 15 immigration, police and military officials forced their way into the home of Professor Pal Ahluwalia, a Canadian national, revoked his work permit and escorted the vice-chancellor and his wife, Sandra Price, to Nadi international airport. They were forced under military guard onto a flight to Brisbane the next day.
RNZ
USP campus in Fiji Photo: USP
The ongoing stand-off between the University of the South Pacific’s host country Fiji and its governing body, the USP Council, has put the regional institution’s future under scrutiny.
The latest crisis came to a head three weeks ago when the whistleblowing vice-chancellor and president, Pal Ahluwalia, and his wife were sent packing by Fijian authorities over accusations the couple breached provisions in their work permits.
The government claimed the Ahluwalias’ conduct was ‘prejudicial to peace, defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, security, or good government of the Fiji islands’ as stated under the Immigration Act.
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Those who really know the Rev. Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission on skid row, have come to accept that there are certain things you can’t tell him.
He doesn’t like to take it easy, despite chronic health problems. And he doesn’t like the concept of medical leave.
“He’s just go, go, go, go, go, all the time,” says Kitty Davis-Walker, one of the mission’s administrators.
But Bales’ colleagues were hoping that now he’d finally heed their warnings. He was having his left leg amputated at mid-shin, several years after an identical amputation of his right leg.