Is Fiji doing enough to tackle human trafficking?

Serious questions are being asked on whether we as a country are doing enough to combat human trafficking as the US State Department Trafficking in Persons Fiji 2024 report says as reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Fiji, and traffickers exploit victims from Fiji abroad.

The report highlights that about 20 percent of respondents to a 2023 prevalence study identified either experiencing themselves or knowing someone who experienced trafficking indicators in the hospitality, retail, wholesale, food service, vehicle maintenance, storage, transportation, construction, agriculture, fisheries, or forestry sectors.

It reveals that traffickers, including family members, taxi drivers, foreign tourists, businessmen, crew members on foreign fishing vessels, and other traffickers exploit foreign victims, including from Thailand and China, as well as Fijian women and children in sex trafficking.

The US State Department report says traffickers exploit victims in commercial sex establishments, hotels, private homes, and massage parlors, and sometimes utilize websites and cell phone applications to facilitate the exploitation of sex trafficking victims.

Traffickers exploit Fijian and Chinese national women and children in Chinese national-operated massage parlors and commercial sex establishments, particularly in Suva.

It further says in some cases, massage parlor owners arrange for female Fijian employees to engage in commercial sex acts with clients in hotels or commercial sex establishments.

The report says 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.

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.

Children as young as 12 were exploited in sex trafficking, sometimes by family members to purchase food and other essentials for their families.

Some Fijian men also reportedly marry women from Nepal and Pakistan and exploit them in domestic servitude in Fiji.

It has been revealed that labour traffickers exploit workers from South and East Asian countries, including Bangladesh and India, in small, informal farms and factories, as well as in the construction and timber sectors.

The US State Department report adds that Chinese nationals may have been forced to work in Fiji at projects run by Chinese-affiliated companies.