Visa-free travel
THE issue regarding visa-free travel for Fijians has been raised by Prof Biman Prasad ever since the Coalition came into power. Now the PM has added his voice to the call.
The question is, who is this call directed at and why have our so-called “friends”, “families”, vuvale etc not paid any heed.
The call now sounds like a broken gramophone record!
Let us look at some facts. The Pacific small island countries, apart from the French territories, do not require visas for travel.
One can virtually go anywhere in the Pacific and obtain a visa on arrival.
This demonstrates the “integration” and respect our fellow PSIDS have for one another.
Australia and New Zealand have remained silent on this and are in no mood to change the current stringent requirements.
Let us look at other major destinations our people go to and with who we apparently enjoy good diplomatic relations.
We still have not been able to negotiate visa-free access to countries such as Indonesia, Japan and India, where we have had long-term relations and they have a presence here in Fiji.
We still need a visa to travel to Europe and the UK where our people have historical relations and serve in the military, international organisations etc.
The saga families have to go through to get a visa to travel is unreal.
Even countries such as Germany, which incidentally co-hosted COP23 with Fiji, requires the Schengen visa for travel and this is a nightmare to get through Canberra, Wellington etc.
In the past the French Embassy in Suva was able to facilitate this but now for the many meetings in biodiversity, climate change etc our citizens have to attend, it is such an onerous and expensive process to obtain even a visa for a single travel.
Unlike the US which would normally grant a 10-year visa, this process has to be repeated each time one travels, and given the HQs of many organisation in this part of the world, this is so often.
Why haven’t the DPMs, the PM and whoever has the power able to negotiate these for Fiji citizens?
And by the way, other countries in the Pacific enjoy visa-free travel to many of these places.
The Fijian passport seems to be the most handicapped in this regard and I wish our leaders can make this a priority at the highest diplomatic level rather than just posturing about it at meetings. ALTAUF CHAND NSW, Australia