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
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 |
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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 ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** The Protection Project - Fiji The 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, 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 Trong & Rani tronie.myfundrazor.org/tronie-foundation/2006/10/trip-to-fiji.html [Last access date
unavailable] Last June a team of
builders from the 3rd Meeting of the CSCAP Study Group on Human Trafficking Discovery Suites, Pasig City, The Philippines 8-9 July 2006 [PDF] Dr Kate McMillan, 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 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] 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. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
