US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken [Source: State Department]

The 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report by the United States government says Fiji identified eight labour trafficking victims, including one boy, compared with identifying 28 labour trafficking victims in the previous reporting period.

The report released today by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, says the Fiji government did not identify any sex trafficking victims for the second consecutive year.

It also says that Fiji at the moment does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.

These efforts included initiating development of victim identification SOPs, convicting two child sex traffickers in one case, conducting research to assess the scope of the country’s trafficking problem, conducting awareness-raising activities, and providing training to labour inspectors.

The report says there was no implementation or allocation of resources towards the National Action Plan and therefore Fiji was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List.

Furthermore, the report claims that there is a lack lacked a dedicated anti-trafficking hotline and reliance is on an NGO hotline for victims of domestic violence and child abuse, which victims could use to report trafficking crimes and seek services; authorities did not report receiving any trafficking information from the hotline.

We have reached out to government for a comment on the report.

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