Covering caskets with mats for burial not allowed - Moceisuva

Deputy Fiji Corrections Service Commissioner Auta Moceisuva says they are not allowing mats to cover caskets for burial.

While revealing this to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights during their submission for the review of the Burial and Cremation Amendment Act (Bill No. 30 of 2025), Moceisuva says sometimes it is problematic for their boys to cut the space a bit bigger to allow the thick mats wrapped around the casket.

He says they have stopped this practice and he believes that it will be beneficial because these mats are valuable and it is better that they keep them and use them for other purposes.

The Deputy Commissioner says in the Act, it defines the size of the land that they should dig in public graves but in villages, it is not specified.

He highlighted that many people are happy that they have cut out the practice of bringing a mat to wrap the casket when there is a burial for the family.