FijiFirst MP, Ioane Naivalurua is concerned that only $10,000 was allocated to the Ministry of Home Affairs Human Trafficking Unit in this financial year, when human trafficking is happening in this country.
While speaking on the motion that Parliament review the Ministry of Defence, National Security and Policing Annual Report 2018 to 2019, Naivalurua says if human trafficking is not addressed, confronted or effectively taken care of, it can be the same as how we deal with drugs now.
He says when he was in China as a representative of Fiji, they received an urgent report relating to three females who were stranded in Hong Kong.
He further says when they sent a team to Hong Kong, they found out the women were lured to Hong Kong for a job opportunity.
He added that when they traced and investigated further, the three were basically reported as missing here at home.
The FijiFirst MP says they noted that there is progress at work under the National Action Plan, and he hopes there will be closer supervision and oversight of the work to get all those outstanding issues done.
When questioned by fijivillage News, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad says they will be considering looking into the allocation to the Human Trafficking Unit in the next budget.
While responding to Naivalurua's plea, Professor Prasad says in the past, there was hardly any attention to not only drug issues but also issues such as human trafficking.
He adds appropriate resources will be allocated.
