Papua New Guinea - March 2026

On 19 March 2026, Papua New Guinea’s Parliament passed the revised 2025 Vagrancy Act. 80 MPs voted for and one against. The Act allows courts to declare individuals ‘habitual offenders’ and issue orders requiring them to leave major towns and return to their registered home province. The Act is intended to address persistent petty crime in the country’s capital and larger towns. Applying restrictions on citizens’ freedom of movement through criminal law is novel in Papua New Guinea, and critics of the Act note it is largely similar to an act of the same name passed in 1986 that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. Additionally, the new Act lacks a definition of ‘vagrancy’ that courts will apply when deciding to issue ‘exclusion orders.’ On 4 April, an opposition MP, who issued the sole vote against the Act, said he would challenge the Act in court.

Sources: The National (1), FM 100 , The National (2)