Some Fijian children are at risk of sex and labour trafficking as families follow a traditional practice of sending them to live with relatives or families in larger cities, where they may be exploited in domestic servitude or sex trafficking in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, or school fees.
The US State Department 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report has stated that foreign yacht owners and foreigners hiring locally owned yachts dock in rural Fijian islands and seek young women, usually children, for marriage; some of these women and children subsequently become exploited in forced labour or sex trafficking.
It has been highlighted that taxi drivers or other facilitators transport Fijian child sex trafficking victims to hotels in popular tourist areas or to private yachts at the request of foreign tourists seeking commercial sex acts.
The US State Department report says Fijian children are at risk of forced labour in agriculture, retail, or other sectors.
It says rising levels of poverty also contributed to increased risks of Fijian children being exploited in commercial sex and forced labour.
It highlights that the economic crisis related to the pandemic, as well as recent natural disasters, increased the number of children who were driven to use the streets as a source of livelihood or compelled to seek incomes to sustain their families; these children are at risk of being exploited in sex trafficking or forced labour.
The US report says children as young as 12 were exploited in sex trafficking, sometimes by family members to purchase food and other essentials for their families.
It says media reports indicate an increase in online child sexual exploitation, some of which may involve child sex trafficking.
We have sent questions to Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, Deputy Prime Minister Professor and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad, Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua and Acting Commissioner of Police Juki Fong Chew.
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