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Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the hands of traffickers

Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025                                              gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Fiji.htm

Republic of the Fiji Islands

Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies though still with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports, remittances from Fijians working abroad, and a growing tourist industry - with 400,000 to 500,000 tourists annually - are the major sources of foreign exchange.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Fiji

Fiji is a source country for children trafficked for the purposes of labor and commercial sexual exploitation, and a destination country for women from the People’s Republic of China, Thailand and India trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Some women from the P.R.C. and India who migrate voluntarily to Fiji for work have been in the past and may still be coerced into forced labor in sweatshops. Fijian boys and girls are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation by family members, other Fijian citizens, foreign tourists, and sailors on foreign fishing vessels. Staff at local hotels procure underage girls for commercial sexual exploitation by guests, while taxi drivers, nightclub staff, and relatives frequently act as facilitators. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009   Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Fiji.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular interest to you.  Would you like to write about Forced-Labor?  Debt Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc.  On the other hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to the subject of Trafficking.  Scan other countries as well.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

HELP for Victims

Immigration Department
331 2672
Country code: 679-

 

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

The Protection Project - Fiji

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University

www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/fiji.doc

[Last accessed 2009]

www.protectionproject.org/country-reports/

[accessed 22 February 2016]

FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE – Pacific Island children may be particularly vulnerable targets for child sex tourists. As the South Pacific emerges as a huge tourist destination, and as police crack down on sex tourists, both in their home countries (such as Australia) and in the more popular destination countries in Asia, there is growing concern that child sex tourism and associated activities are on the increase in the region.

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - The report also warned that the sale of children in Fiji could become a problem if loopholes in the adoption law were not amended. Although baby and child trafficking from Fiji appeared to be rare, the potential existed for such trafficking to increase. There have been a number of cases of older children being taken from their parents to live in Australia and New Zealand.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Fiji

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 30 March 2021

www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/fiji/

[accessed 6 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

There were reports forced labor occurred, including by children (see section 7.c.). Forced labor of adults and children occurred in the field of domestic work. Southeast Asians were subject to forced labor in manufacturing, agriculture, and fishing.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Poverty caused children to migrate to urban areas for work, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation in work as casual laborers, often with no safeguards against abuse or injury. Child labor continued in the informal sector and in hazardous work, for example, as wheelbarrow boys and casual laborers. Children engaged in hazardous work in agriculture and fishing. Commercial sexual exploitation of children occurred (see section 6, Children). Some children worked in relatives’ homes and were vulnerable to involuntary domestic servitude or forced to engage in sexual activity in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, or school fees.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/fiji/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 8 July 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Sex trafficking of children remained a problem in 2019, and the government was ineffective in addressing it. The first and only sex-trafficking conviction in Fiji’s history occurred in December, despite the most recent US Trafficking in Persons report citing it as a major issue that has persisted over the course of many years. Safety standards at workplaces are not always adequately enforced. Long work hours are common in some jobs, including transportation and shipping.

2017 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018

www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf

[accessed 17 April 2019]

www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf

[accessed 27 April 2020]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

[page 419]

Commercial sexual exploitation of children continued to occur in Fiji, particularly by family members, taxi drivers, foreign tourists, businessmen, and crew on foreign fishing vessels. (1; 16; 3; 17; 18) Parents sometimes send their children to live with families in cities or near schools to facilitate their continuing education and to perform light household work. Research found that some of these children are vulnerable to involuntary domestic work or are forced to engage in sexual activity in exchange for food, clothing, or shelter. (21; 22; 3).

Human trade victims spared

Margaret Wise, Fiji Times OnLine, September 26, 2010

www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=156837

[accessed 5 February 2011]

Victims of human trafficking can rest assured that the Director of Public Prosecution will not pursue cases against them.   Instead the DPP will use all its powers against human trafficking facilitators.

The office of the DPP is committed to entering a nolle prosequi against the victims of human trafficking who have been mistakenly charged for unlawful possession of travel documents or similar offences."

The Trip to Fiji

Trong & Rani Hong, Washington, The Tronie Foundation, October 29, 2006

tronie.myfundrazor.org/tronie-foundation/2006/10/trip-to-fiji.html

[Last access date unavailable]

Last June a team of builders from the Olympia area went to Fiji to build a shelter for women who want to get out of a life of prostitution. They laid the groundwork, set up basic structure, improved the water systems, and much more. This last September, a team from the Tronie Foundation, including founders Trong and Rani Hong, went back to Fiji for the dedication ceremony of this new shelter. It is a community of homes and classrooms for these women, many of whom were forced into prostitution.

3rd Meeting of the CSCAP Study Group on Human Trafficking Discovery Suites, Pasig City, The Philippines 8-9 July 2006 [PDF]

Dr Kate McMillan, School of History, Philosophy and Political Science, Victoria University of Wellington, CSCAP_Reports_Contributions/2006/HT Report, August 2006

www.cscap.org/uploads/docs/Human%20Trafficking/3HTMtgRpt.pdf

[accessed 10 September 2014]

EXPERT PRESENTATIONS - A second presentation was given by Sean Evans, Law Enforcement Adviser from the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat. He began by reporting that Niue is the only Pacific Island country within the Forum to have ratified the Protocols to the UN Convention on Transnational Crime. However, the Pacific Islands Forum has also done a lot of work in developing model legislation, and a number of countries have anti-trafficking legislation before their parliaments. Evans illustrated the types of trafficking issues that are being seen in the Pacific by reference to cases of deceptive recruiting from China into Palau, of Thai women being forced into prostitution in Fiji, and women being forced into work at sweatshops in U.S. Samoa and Fiji.

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 20 April 2018

www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/eap/277081.htm

accessed 22 March 2019]

www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/fiji/

accessed 26 June 2019]

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Poverty continued to lead children to migrate to urban areas for work, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation, and to work as casual laborers, often with no safeguards against abuse or injury. Child labor continued in the informal sector and in hazardous work, including work as wheelbarrow boys and casual laborers, including in cane farming and other agriculture. Commercial sexual exploitation of children occurred (see section 6). Some children working in the homes of relatives were vulnerable to involuntary domestic servitude or forced to engage in sexual activity in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, or school fees.

Human Rights Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 6, 2007

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78773.htm

[accessed 8 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – A November 2005 law prohibits trafficking in persons, and there were no substantiated reports of trafficking to or from the country during the year. There were some reports of children trafficked within the country during the year. Many observers cited poverty as the primary underlying reason for sexual exploitation of children.

The antitrafficking law provides for penalties of up to 20 years' imprisonment and fines up to $442,000 (F$750,000) for convicted traffickers.  The government did not sponsor or provide assistance to any programs specifically to combat or prevent trafficking in persons.

The Department of Labor’s 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF]

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2006

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2005/tda2005.pdf

[accessed 10 November 2010]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

CHILD LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The worst forms of child labor may be prosecuted under different statutes in Fiji. The Employment Ordinance states no child under the age of 12 years shall be employed in any capacity whatsoever. The Employment Act sets the minimum ages for employment, with children defined as being less than 15 years of age. The Act also establishes that children between 12 and 15 years cannot work under harsh working conditions or where there are long hours, night work, or hard or heavy work. The Constitution prohibits forced labor, and the Penal Code prohibits the sale or hiring of minors less than 16 years of age for prostitution.

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