Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says while over 10,000 Fijians have participated in the seasonal worker schemes abroad there have also been challenges associated with labour mobility.

Rabuka highlighted this during the Leaders Dialogue with Civil Society and Private Sector representatives, held on the sidelines of the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga.

Rabuka says labour mobility is a critical area of benefit for many Pacific Island Forum members, including Fiji.

He also highlighted the substantial economic impact of these schemes, with remittances from Fijian seasonal workers contributing more than a billion dollars annually to the national economy.

However he says there are issues that they continue to work on internally or domestically.

Rabuka says one of the significant challenges is the departure of trained professionals and skilled workers from Fiji, many of whom opt to take up semi-skilled or unskilled positions abroad.

He says this has created a vacuum in the domestic workforce, impacting local industries, including Fiji’s own seasonal work requirements.

“Sometimes our own seasonal work requirements suffer but then we have accidentally developed the circular labor mobility where some of our workers go overseas and during the seasonal work requirements of cane harvesting, we get workers from abroad coming in.”

Rabuka is also calling on international contractors engaged in major infrastructure projects in Pacific Island countries to prioritize the recruitment of local workers.