Lured into sex

Police: Rise in trafficking of underaged kids

POLICE have revealed that underaged girls and boys are being lured into commercial sex in the country.

Fiji Police Force human trafficking unit senior investigator Inspector Mukhtar Ahmed made the revelation at the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation workshop in Sigatoka yesterday, saying trafficking in persons and aggravated trafficking of children had increased because of the movement of people across the borders and the easy access of foreigners into Fiji.

“Underage girls and boys are lured into commercial sex and young boys lured into child labour around the streets either by family members or dominant ex-criminal offenders or other small business owners,” Insp Ahmed revealed at the workshop.

UNDERAGED girls and boys are lured into commercial sex in the country.

The revelation was made by the Fiji Police Force human trafficking unit senior investigator Inspector Mukhtar Ahmed.

Speaking during his presentation at the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation workshop at Naviti Resort in Sigatoka yesterday, he said apart from this, young boys were also being lured into child labour around the streets in Fiji.

“Underaged girls and boys lured into commercial sex and young boys lured into child labour around the streets either by family members or dominant ex-criminal offenders or other small business owners,” he said.

Insp Ahmed stressed that trafficking in persons and aggravated trafficking of children have increased because of the movement of people across the borders and the easy access of foreigners into Fiji.

He said local people and business partners had no knowledge of human trafficking legislation.

However, he said detection rates internationally were getting effective.

He highlighted that cheap labour contributed to trafficking as well.

“Most of the countries take advantage of this in Fiji. Most of the foreigners they come to Fiji, set up a business and this is where it happens,” he said.

“When employees are exploited by their employers and they have other issues by their employers and what is promised to them is not fulfilled by their employers. People are also recruited from other Asian countries to come and work in Fiji and they are not well looked after and not paid well.

“These people are being exploited in a sense that the services offered to them are not fulfilled.”

Insp Ahmed also said that people who often faced these problems needed to report their griviences to their nearest police station.