Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga

Competing interests and operational challenges prevent some human trafficking cases from being pursued and reaching court.

This has been highlighted by Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga while commenting on the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report by the United States.

The report states that a lack of dedicated resources and funding to combat human trafficking hindered authorities’ ability to investigate trafficking crimes.

Turaga says the lack of investigation into trafficking cases is an operational issue, and there needs to be a collaborative effort to address the problem.

“We want more collaboration within the border control agencies so that the intelligence that comes in—we know people who are brought in from outside countries to work in Fiji and paid for sex or promised work in other countries—ends up being exploited. Those are the scenes that we want the police to pursue.”

The report says that in Fiji, traffickers, including family members, taxi drivers, foreign tourists, businessmen, crewmembers on foreign fishing vessels, and other traffickers, exploit foreign victims.

Turaga adds that the illegal activities seen in other countries are also occurring in Fiji but on a smaller scale.