Apenisa Waqairadovu 
[file/photo]
Fiji currently lacks a system to identify foreign sex offenders entering the country, with the government working to address the gap.
Minister for Justice and Acting Attorney General Siromi Turaga says regulations for the Registration of Sex Offenders Act will allow Fiji to share information with overseas law enforcement agencies.
He says Immigration would then be able to track people entering Fiji who are registered sex offenders in other countries.
Turaga says a recent case involving a person wanted by authorities in the United States exposed the problem.
“It was not known to us because they did not send us the information. But once that information was passed to Immigration, the U.S. officials actually came and deported that person back.”
Turaga says if Fiji had a functioning register and information-sharing system, authorities could have acted as soon as the person arrived.
He says the regulations are expected to be tabled in Parliament in the first quarter of this financial year.
