Australian Federal Police

The donation enhances the partnership between the AFP and the Vanuatu Police Force, bolstering law enforcement capabilities and supporting Vanuatu's commitment to peacekeeping efforts.

The event commenced with the official handover of a computer system, CID suits and the UN mission uniform by the AFP Deputy Commissioner Lesa Gale to the Vanuatu Police Commissioner, Colonel Robsen Iavro.

The Commissioner of Police later handed over the UN Mission uniform and deployment kits to the 10 selected candidates for the upcoming UN peacekeeping mission.

Vanuatu Police said, “The MOU will continue to empower and build both agencies to collaborate further and assist each other in jointly combatting transnational crime and organized crime that are impacting Vanuatu, Australia and the Pacific region.”

Australian Federal Police say the 33-year-old man is one of two men arrested on board a yacht carrying a tonne of the illicit drug also known as P.

Police say the haul has an estimated street value of up to $A750 million ($NZ789m).

The yacht was intercepted off the New South Wales coast near Lake Macquarie, after an international sting involving agencies from Australia, New Caledonia and the United Kingdom.

A cohort of 30 police officers from 11 Pacific countries are attending the training workshop to help them understand violence against women and to deal sensitively with such cases.

 Police officers attending the Fourth Police Regional Training Program discussed sexual harassment and rape as part of the two-week workshop. 

The workshop funded by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and facilitated by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) focused on how gender relations had changed in Pacific communities but also on the many barriers that remained.

The participants shared the experiences in their police stations and communities about the kinds of violence and barriers women continue to face. Some participants continued to believe that women brought the violence on themselves by nagging or not obeying their husbands. 

A spokeswoman for the force told Fairfax Media that the cases had happened before this year. The officers were treated and do not appear to be showing any lasting effects of the mosquito-borne virus, which is currently the subject of a World Health Organisation-declared emergency after being linked to birth defects.