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Fiji remains on the Tier 2 Watch List of the 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report for the second consecutive year.

The report states that this is because the Fiji Government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

It says that despite making significant efforts to do so, Fiji did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore, Fiji remains on the Tier 2 Watch List.

The report states that significant efforts by Fiji included initiating more trafficking investigations, identifying more trafficking victims – including a victim of sex trafficking – and referring trafficking victims to services.

It says that in partnership with civil society organisations, the Fiji government completed the development of victim identification Standard Operating Procedures, began developing a centralized trafficking case management system, and updated the anti-trafficking National Action Plan.

However, it states that the government did not initiate any new trafficking prosecutions and, for the second consecutive year, did not convict any traffickers.

The report claims that despite many years of widespread reporting of trafficking indicators within a religious organization that operated numerous businesses in various sectors, authorities did not take sufficient action to hold suspected traffickers accountable or identify and assist potential victims.

It states that official complicity and corruption undermined anti-trafficking efforts in Fiji and allowed traffickers to operate with impunity.

The report recommends that Fiji approve and implement formal SOPs for victim identification and referral to care and train stakeholders on their use.

It further suggests that Fiji proactively identify trafficking victims by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations – including individuals in commercial sex, Chinese national workers, child laborers, and migrant workers – at initial visa application and recruitment.

The report states that Fiji should also increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including those involving complicit officials and individuals facilitating child sex trafficking on private yachts and in hotels, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.

It says Fiji should also finalize and implement the 2026 national action plan and dedicate resources to its implementation.

Further prioritized recommendations include the institutionalization and expansion of comprehensive anti-trafficking training for front-line officials, including in the basic recruit training, at local police stations, and for officers assigned to the Fiji Police Force’s Human Trafficking Unit (HTU), on the indicators of trafficking, victim-centered and trauma-informed trafficking investigations, available victim protection services, and investigative techniques.

The report also recommends that Fiji amend trafficking-related provisions of the 2009 Crimes Act to criminalize all forms of trafficking.

Enable identified foreign victims to work and earn income while assisting with investigations, and provide a legal alternative to victims’ removal to countries where they may face retribution or hardship.

It also recommends that Fiji continue to increase efforts to work with civil society, the private sector, and religious and community leaders to develop public awareness campaigns, including in iTaukei and Hindi, to raise awareness on all forms of human trafficking and the anti-trafficking laws, particularly among employers, foreign tourists, residents in outer island communities, and vulnerable populations, including individuals in commercial sex, persons displaced by natural disasters, foreign migrant workers, and female victims of violence.

It also recommends the increase in availability and quality of protection services – including completing renovation of the Fiji Immigration Department’s safehouses and providing short-term shelter, long-term housing, counseling, and medical care – for all trafficking victims, including by collaborating with civil society service providers.

Fiji should also train prosecutors and judicial officials on the application of trafficking laws, elements of trafficking, investigative techniques, evidence collection specific to trafficking cases, and alternatives to victim testimony.

The report recommends improving collaboration and communication between police and prosecutors, including by assigning a prosecutor to work directly with the police and FID on trafficking cases.

It states that Fiji should increase oversight of working conditions for foreign construction workers and increase investigations of labor violations involving children and migrant workers for forced labor.

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