By Ryan L. Maness

Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Fiji

SUVA, Fiji — Bob Debus, the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, has closed the office of the Transnational Crime Coordination Centre (PTCCC) that was located in Suva and will reopen it in Apia, Somoa.  The PTCCC, which is an organization design to investigate transnational crime in the Pacific, closed its office in Fiji due to Fiji’s political instability.

According to the SDL party, the opposition party to Fiji’s interim government, the move comes as no surprise.  The SDL’s National Director, Peceli Kinivuwai, said, “I think the member countries who make up the Transnational Crime Centre they also very much champion the rule of law and it would be ironic if they have that Centre here while at the same time we cannot solve our political differences – we still have political instabilities and economic decline.”

Ema Mua, a spokeswoman for Fiji’s police, said that the decision was premature.  According to Mua, while human trafficking must be dealt with, Fiji’s political situation should not affect the work of the center.

For more information, please see:

Fiji Times — Crime office to reopen — 10 June 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Somoa’s PM opens Pacific Trans-national crime co-ordination centre — 10 June 2008

Fiji Times — New crimes a reality — 09 June 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji’s main political party says loss of international policing agency, no surprise — 09 June 2008

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SUVA, Fiji — Following an inspection team’s examination of Fiji’s fishing industry last year, the European Union has decided to ban the importation of fish from Fiji.  The EU’s trade adviser in Fiji, Andrea Salviati, said that she believed that the fish carried health risks for the citizens of Europe and that is why the ban was imposed.  According to Salviati “The competent authority at present is not so competent, to fulfill with EU standards…the main issue is to improve the body that they already have.”

Fiji Fish Managing Director, Grahame Southwick, said that the ban is a product of the government’s relationship with the country’s fishing industry.  The ban came after the EU issued a number of warnings to Fiji regarding their fishing practices.

Due to the strength of the European Economy, Radio New Zealand International projects that Fiji could lose thousands of jobs as a result of the ban, laboring a country already hampered with high unemployment.

For more information, please see:

Fiji Village — Fiji Can Make it Back says EU — 10 June 2008

Radio New Zealand International — European Union ban could cost thousands of jobs in Fiji fishing industry — 09 June 2008

Radio New Zealand International — EU says it has banned Fiji fish exports because processing is poorly monitored — 09 June 2008

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, USA — The American State Department has released an annual report which examines the proliferation of human trafficking in 153 countries around the world and has listed Fiji among tier 3 countries.  Because of their placement in the report, Fiji is in danger of losing aid from the United States.

According to the report (which can be found in relevant part here), Fiji has failed to make a significant effort to eliminate human trafficking since last year’s report.  “Fiji is a source country for children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and a destination country for a small number of women from the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) and India trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation,” the report begins.  The report goes on to say that Fiji’s children are also being exploited by local Fijians or foreign tourists and that Fiji’s government has taken “no action to investigate or prosecute traffickers, assist victims, or participate in public awareness campaigns to prevent trafficking.”

Fiji’s interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has said that dealing with human trafficking is a priority following the US’s report.  He also called upon other nations with more resources to assist in Fiji’s fight against human trafficking.  However, he was quick to insinuate that Fiji’s presence on the report should not risk its foreign aid. “Shunning us because simply it wasn’t done in the past is not a positive way to deal with the situation,” the interim AG said.

For more information, please see:

Fiji Times — A-G toughens on human trade — 08 June 2008

Pacific Magazine  — Fiji AG Concerned About Human Trafficking — 08 June 2008

Radio New Zealand International — U.S. State Department says that Fiji and PNG could lose aid following human trafficking report — 04 June 2008